Monday 9/17 ~ “Follow my son to safety.”

The scripture for today, September 17 (9/17), is Nehemiah 9:17 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

00- Worship Changes KC COVER-thumbnail“They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore, you did not desert them.”

Such love! Do you rebel against God (who is only trying to save you) over and over because you don’t want anyone telling you what to do? God forgives you over and over. First Peter 3:9 says “The Lord…is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

God could turn you into a robot and force you to love and obey him. But that wouldn’t be real love. God is Love, and he cannot go against his own nature.

And so God follows you around and pleads over and over, “Follow my Son to safety!”

How he hurts when you do not; how he smiles when you do.

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Sunday 9/16 ~ “I will not stop until they kill me.”

The scripture for today, September 16 (9/16), is 1st Corinthians 9:16 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

00-Stephen-Cover-Kindle-Thumbnail“Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”

The Apostle Paul said this. An Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, said almost the same thing in 20:9: “If I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in! Indeed, I cannot!”

Are you so full of the Word of God that you have to share it? Do you work it into your daily conversations?

I knew a lady once who took several church bulletins with her every Sunday. Then during the week, if she heard a conversation at a bus stop, she’d interrupt them and say, “I couldn’t help but hear what you were saying. Perhaps God in your life would help.” Then she’d hand them a bulletin. She’d do the same thing at a fast-food place like McDonald’s, or in the waiting room of a doctor. She could not hold it in. She had to share, even if it was with strangers.

There is a man in Afghanistan who is a partially secret Christian. When he thinks he can trust someone, he teaches them the gospel. He has run for his freedom and his life three times in the last eight years. He tells me, “I will not stop until they kill me.”

What about you? Is the Word of God overflowing in you so much you cannot keep it in? Tell someone today that God loves them. Watch them smile with a gleam in their eye that says, “I’d like to know more”.

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Tuesday 9/4 ~ Shhh. Listen. Do you hear him?

The scripture for today, September 4 (9/4), is Daniel 9:4 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

000-COVER-KINDLE-Thumbnail“I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: ‘O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands….’ “

A lot of people in the world think God should feel obligated to take them to heaven. After all, they are fairly good, and better than some. God couldn’t possibly in all good conscience turn them away.

Yet, their entire life they resent God. They don’t like his few commands; they don’t want anyone telling them what to do or not do. Or they claim to love God but create their own commands that just aren’t in the Bible, making themselves God. What confusion!

Ultimately, heaven is God’s home, not ours. He is not obligated to invite anyone into His home. Besides, only perfection can live with God who is perfect. It only takes one sin to make us an imperfect sinner.

So how do we become perfect? That’s where God’s awesomeness is demonstrated. By following Jesus who was perfect and never sinned, and obeying Jesus’ few commands, God considers us perfect by proxy.

But it’s like a boomerang.  God treats us the way we treat him. If we don’t take time for God, he doesn’t take time for us. If we don’t like to spend time praising him, he doesn’t spend time praising us. Actually, if we don’t really like anything about God, we would be miserable in heaven.

God never forces himself on anyone. But he keeps on calling. Shhh.  Listen. Do you hear him?

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Saturday 9/1 ~ Do You Ever Wonder?

The scripture for today, September 1 (9/1), is Psalm 9:1 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

07-SHADOW-ChildsCartoonThmbnail“I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.”

I knew a lady many years ago who talked to God all day as though he was sitting or standing beside her, whether she was cleaning floors, washing dishes, going shopping, or just received a telephone call. She talked to God about everything she was doing. God was her constant companion.

What opportunities you miss to talk to God during the day. Every time you do, you are praising Him. How? By acknowledging His concern with everything you do, and in the process acknowledging His omnipresence. And what a wonder His omnipresence is!

Does this include times when everything in your life is going wrong? You bet! On some days, the wonders of God are about the only positive things you can find in our life.

Praising God for his wonders amidst your frustrations, tears, fears, and helplessness can lift you out of the mire. It can remind you that you are not alone; for God sees what is happening to you, and in his own way he will perform a wonder for you.

 

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Tuesday 8/27 ~ Watch them become awed

(Sorry, I did today’s yesterday. So yesterday’s will be today.  All in a dither with many exciting irons in the fire. Can there ever be too many?)

 

0-Titus-Cover-Lg ThumbThe scripture for today, August 27 (8/27), is Mark 8:27 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, ‘Who do people say I am?’ “

Do we ask our family, our neighbors, our friends how they feel about God? Who do people say God us? We don’t know unless we ask. A lot of people are just waiting for someone to ask. Otherwise, they don’t know how or when to bring it up.

Whenever I meet someone who has gone through a tragedy, I ask them “How’s your faith?”. Now this person may not have darkened the door of a church building for 20 years, but s/he always knows what I mean. Since I am sympathizing with them at the time, they are always honest and reply, “Not very good,” usually meaning their faith is nearly gone if not all the way gone.

Then I tell them, “You know, Satan causes bad to happen to people, not Jesus.” They always stare at me a moment, and then breathe a sigh of relief. They hadn’t wanted to blame God for their tragedy, but they had a need to blame someone. They’d forgotten Satan exists, and were grateful they could now put the blame where it belonged.

There are many other people today who believe in a “Higher Power” but have no idea who that “Higher Power” is.  Many, even in America today, have never read the Bible and are curious about it.  Ask people you know, “Who is the High Power”, and listen to them. Then offer to show them how the Bible is divided up and how to read it (especially Genesis, then the New Testament).

We must continually be on the watch for people who need help in understanding their relationship with God. Be brave. Go ahead and ask. You’ll be surprised at how many WANT to talk about it. Be delighted as you open up a whole new world to them and watch them become awed.

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Titus grew up in a gentile home. What gods did they believe in? How did Paul change him? What did he do then?

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Thursday 8/23 ~ What will be in your Book in heaven?

The scripture for today, August 23 (8/23), is 2nd Kings 8:23 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-Joseph-Cover-Thumbnail“As for the other events of Jehoram’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?”

All the years of this great king’s life were reduced to a few pages in a book. When you die, what will there be to write about? Will people list only the date and place of your birth, marriage, and death ~ your statistics? What will you be remembered for? What will be in your obituary?

Better still, what is God writing about you in his books? “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened. Another book was opened which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books” (Revelation 12).

Will your book be thin with not a lot worth writing about? Will it be thick and full of all you’ve accomplished for good and God in this life? What will be in your book?

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Tuesday 8/21 ~ Fasting. Me?

The scripture for today, August 21 (8/21), is Ezra 8:21a as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-BK 8-ComeFlyWithMe-Cover-Thumbnail-New“There, by the Ahava Canal [from the Euphrates R.], I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God.”

In our modern society, does anyone fast anymore? Not drinking our food (juice) for a day and calling that a fast, but a true fast where we drink only water to stay hydrated, but that’s all. And we turn off all computers, phones, radios, and televisions for the day.

Jesus said in his sermon on the mount, “When you fast….” (Matthew 6:16). He didn’t say, “If you fast….” No, he assumed his followers would fast. Do we?

If we do, do we do it as a group? Does anyone else know about it? They shouldn’t know unless they are the reason for our fast. Fasting is an act of self-restraint. It belongs to the sphere of humble self-discipline. It is strictly a personal and private matter.

All moral and bodily restraint, all humbleness of body and spirit are represented by fasting, and it is a complete failure of self-restraint to want to show the world our self-restraint. An unknown author wrote this:

Let us keep our fast within,

Till heaven and we are quite alone;

Then let the grief, the shame, the sin,

Before the mercy-seat be thrown.

Fasting is a way of starving ourselves temporarily, a way of saying, “God, I would do this and more for you; I would die for you.” Or, “God, I would trade lives with this person I am fasting for to give them rest if it were possible. I would even die for this person.” It is a deep expression to God that goes beyond words.

Also, when we fast, our minds are freed from trying to digest food so we can think clearer and deeper. And we can face ourselves more honestly. Just what are we deep down? Do we truly love God as much as we claim? Do we truly love our families as much as we claim? Our neighbors? Our fellow Christians? Our enemies?

It is a time of self-reflection and self-honesty. When we humble ourselves this much, we can grow closer to God.

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Sunday 8/19 ~ Whisperings and mutterings? Really?

The scripture for today, August 19 (8/19), is Isaiah 8:19f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

Inside-COVER-lg thumbnail“When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.”

It has always been a popular thing to do among some people to try to reach into the spirit world, the world of demons and the dead. They may be very religious people. They may pray a lot and go to worship a lot and read the Bible a lot. But God’s word is not enough for them, so they delve into the other world. God says “they have no light of dawn.”

Do you want to talk to someone in the other world? Pray. God is in the other world. Do you want someone in the other world to talk to you? Read the Bible. That is God talking to you from the other world. What more could you ask?!

Whisperings and mutterings?  Don’t need them. God has given you all you need. And we love him for it.

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Saturday 8/18 ~ Suffering for the right reason

(I seem to have sent you today’s yesterday.  So, today’s will be yesterday’s.)

The scripture for today, August 17 (8/17), is Romans 8:17 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

00-Stephen-Cover-Kindle-Thumbnail“Now if we are children, then we are heirs ~ heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (see also Galatians 3:16)

I Peter 4:12-14 says we should not be surprised when persecution happens, “as though something strange was happening to you.” If we are insulted because of Jesus, we are blessed.

Notice, we are co-heirs with Christ IF we share in his suffering. Have you shared in Jesus’ sufferings lately? Have you ever in your entire life shared in Jesus’ sufferings? If not, you haven’t told very many people about Jesus loving them or stood up for Jesus when people around you were making fun of him or using his name as a swear word.

Are you sinning by omission? Do you huddle with your church friends all the time and brag that all the friends you have are Christians? Jesus didn’t. Jesus went out to “seek and save the lost.” Are you seeking?

Sometime today, say something to someone about Jesus ~ someone in a store, at work, a neighbor, a fellow passenger on a bus. They probably won’t insult you. This may be exactly what they’ve been looking for. But if they do insult you, accept it graciously. Then go on your way feeling honored to be a “co-heir with Christ” by “sharing in his suffering.”

Try it. You will be glad you did.

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Thursday 8/16 ~ A child of the Creator?

The scripture for today, August 16 (8/16), is Romans 8:16 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

365 Dat by Date-Front-Thumbnail

This is so similar to the scripture of a few days ago on how to know if the Spirit is living in you.  You can use the same approach to determine how the Spirit teaches you that you are God’s child.”

Once again, John 14:17 says the Comforter Jesus sent us was the Spirit of Truth. And Jesus said in John 17:17, God’s Word is Truth. So it is through God’s Word that you are taught how to become God’s child. You do not have to guess!

This is what is so wonderful about Christianity. The Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, Shamanist and many other religions leave the followers to guess because their “god” has given them no instructions. Ninety-nine percent of them believe they are not children of God. They also believe there are not saved because they can’t be perfect, so have to be reincarnated thousands of times to try to be perfect. The Muslim religion says followers are slaves, and they won’t know until the Day of Judgment if their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds.

In all other world religions, followers never know if they are children of God and saved. As hard as you try, you cannot be perfect.  But Jesus came and was perfect for you.  All the good works in the world will not get a sinner into God’s home ~ heaven~ because we are still sinners. Jesus collected the wages for your sin, thus making Satan’s threats of hell ineffective.  If you believe this and follow what he says in the Bible, you can become God’s child and live with Him forever after you go through the happy door of death.

 Praise God! He has given you The Map, the Way ~ the Holy Bible, God’s Word in written form. Such solace. Such comfort. Such reassurance.

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