You stopped at nothing

Supper-Front Cover-MediumGod of heaven and earth, you are far above anything and anyone else.  You are our Creator.  You are perfection. I am so far below you in all things. But you are the lover of my soul, my protector, my comforter, my betrothed. Thank you. You deserve all earth’s praise and honor and glory.  All heaven praises you and I adore you.

Lord, I have been neglecting the lost. Why do I do that? Help me be alone with them and ask them about their relationship with God. Instead, I surround myself with my Christian friends. I need them, but the lost need me more. Forgive me when I become too comfortable. Oh, Lord, give me souls or else I die.

Thank you, God of my heart and soul, for loving me so. You stopped at nothing to save me, despite my rebellious ego that does sinful things you say will hurt me.  You are so good, and though I offend you every day, you keep coming back and loving me all the more. No human is able to forgive as often as you do ~ hundreds of times just in one year and sometimes in one month. How can I truly thank you? I fall at your feet unworthy and worship you.

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Supper-Front Cover-ThumbnailTHE LORD’S SUPPER:  52 READINGS WITH PRAYERS provides material for leading the holy communion service on Sundays.  It can also be used by individual partakers for their quiet meditation.  Every church library should have one.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://bit.ly/2ZvCTDS

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/the-lords-supper-52-readings-with-prayers/

I cannot see you, but you are everywhere I look


OldOldTunes-mediumI praise your very name, Lord God. Your name is holy. The angels praise you day and night. The heavens praise always. I praise you forever. But it is never enough. You, our Creator, are worthy of so much more. Accept my puny efforts as a little child standing before a giant. Accept my puny efforts as a little spider crawling through the sands of a great desert. Accept my puny efforts as a single little star surviving amidst a thousand thousand galaxies. How overwhelmed I am that you actually notice little insignificant me. You not only notice me, but you love me and take me as your child. I am the child of the Creator! I am consumed with amazement.

Thank you, God, for loving me and caring for me. I cannot see you but you are everywhere I look.  I cannot hear you but you are in every sound I hear. I cannot feel you but you are in everything I touch. Most of all you are in my heart. Thank you for being there. Thank you for staying so close and making me feel as though I am the only other person in the world.

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OldOldTunes-ThumbnailTHE OLD OLD STORY SET TO OLD OLD TUNES.   Forty-four songs for the Old Testament and forty-four songs for the New Testament. This book may be used by teachers or given as gifts to children.  Anyone who knows these common folk tunes will be able to sing the songs immediately. If you do not know any of the tunes, you can find them on the internet.  If you use this book to teach children’s Bible classes, you will find that sometimes one song will cover your entire series, such as the life of Moses or of Paul.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover nor paste this:  https://bit.ly/2YwJVHI

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/links-to-some-of-my-fun-bible-stuff/the-old-old-story-set-to-old-old-tunes/

 

He will stop at nothing to make sure you last forever

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

0-HS-592 VersesExamined-COVER-Thumbnail“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 it was your pride and joy?  Were you so proud of it that you would stop at nothing to take care of it and make sure it lasted forever? Yes, you had a few rules about its care. You had a few rules about who could touch it and who couldn’t. You had a few rules about whether it should be kept at high or low temperature and should or shouldn’t be exposed to water. 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. He made you. You are his pride and joy. He will stop at nothing to make sure you will last forever. He made a few rules for your daily maintenance.

He is 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 you can last forever. Can you love him back ~ your Maker and the Lover of your soul?

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0-HS-592 VersesExamined-COVER-ThumbnailTHE HOLY SPIRIT:  592 VERSES EXAMINED.  No feeding on pet peeves. This book considers all verses in the Bible about God’s Holy Spirit.  When studied like that, everything comes together, makes sense, and is beautiful.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://bit.ly/376695S

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/1107-2/my-book-the-holy-spirit-in-365-scriptures/?frame-nonce=9f9ac75c8f

And when I could stand it no longer…

The scripture for today, March 1 (3/1), is 1st Thessalonians 3:1,5 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

00-Hero Alone-COVER-KINDLE-Medium“So, when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens….For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless.”

In Thessalonica, there had been a riot, and the man who had given Paul and his helpers a place to live was hauled into court. Paul just couldn’t put his host through that, so “when we could stand it no longer,” he left the city and went off by himself so he wouldn’t jeopardize anyone else.

Still the great Apostle Paul ~ who went everywhere preaching non-stop for decades; who stood up under beatings, stonings, hunger, and shipwrecks; who explained to church leaders how to lead their congregation; whose letters were prophecy and became scripture ~ the powerful Apostle Paul still felt very tenderly toward his fellow Christians.

He worried about how they were getting along spiritually. And when he “could stand it no longer,” he wrote back to Thessalonica to find out how they were doing.

Do you feel this way about the spiritual well-being of other people? Is there someone you need to call or write to today because you want to find out how they are?  Do you have any words of encouragement for them? Any at all?

Tender love is a powerful love. A strong love. A love that will never, ever let go.

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00-Hero Alone-COVER-KINDLE-ThumbnailYOU CAN BE A HERO ALONE:  SURVIVAL STORIES FOR THE COURAGEOUS ISOLATED CHRISTIAN.  This book was written for the discouraged isolated Christian.  It is stories of people in the Bible who were isolated from society because they followed God.  There are thought questions at the end of each chapter.  A great gift to send someone who needs courage to keep going.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this:  https://bit.ly/354h5R8

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/1107-2/you-can-be-a-hero-alone-survival-stories-for-the-isolated-christian/

The Son shall be called the Father

 0000-BK 1-StarSong-Cover-new-MediumThe scripture for today, February 23 (2/23), is 1st John 2:23 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”

This verse tells us the Son and Father are one. Isaiah 9:6 calls the child to be born both the Son and the Father and Mighty God. The Son gives birth to the Father; the Father gives birth to the Son. In other words, God is self-existent and one.

When you speak into a tape recorder and your voice then comes out of that machine for other people to hear, that doesn’t make you two.  You are still one; you have just chosen to put your voice in something where you can be heard by people away from you.  That tape recording is just another form of you. You can also put your voice and body in a movie. That doesn’t make two of you ~ one on the screen and one in your physical body. You are still one.

God is One, and yet he revealed a part of himself in a burning bush to Moses just like you revealed a part of yourself in the tape recorder or movie.  Does that mean there were two Gods ~ one in heaven and one in the bush?  No.  God can and has sometimes revealed himself in different ways. Remember how he walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden?

Some say, “If Jesus was God on earth, when he died, God was dead.”  No. That temporary body was dead, but God’s Spirit, God’s Soul, God’s being continued to live. Jesus, the Word of God, did not depend on a body to be alive.

Why would Jesus be called the Son of God, since he was not a son created in the literal way we have sons?  You have thoughts, and those thoughts have existed as long as you have.  But you still created those thoughts.  When your thoughts become hearable or seeable, people call that your “brainchild.”   In that same sense, Jesus was God’s “brainchild” ~ God’s thoughts in hearable and seeable form. 

How was he the only begotten Son? God has only one Word ~ the Bible.  “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God…All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-3).  When God spoke the world into existence, that was Jesus. Every time God spoke, that was Jesus.

Isaiah 9:6 says the Son shall be called Mighty God and Everlasting Father.  And so he was.  And so he is.

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0000-BK 1-StarSong-Cover-new-ThumbnailTHEY MET JESUS:  STAR SONGCome meet the people who met Jesus.  You are one of them  Probably you are several of them. Go ahead and struggle with him as they did.  Laugh. Cry.  Do mental battle with him.  Emotional battle too.  Fight for your faith as they fought.  Pause to listen for what you’ve never heard before.  Then touch Jesus. This is the story of faith in the impossible.   Hope in the inconceivable.  Love for the invincible.  It is the dreams of youth, the desperations of infirmity, the hopes of age, and the song of eternity.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this:  https://bit.ly/3qMEUXd

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/historical-novel-about-jesus/

 

The world is your song

OldOldTunes-mediumI can’t help but praise you, my Lord, each day and all day. You alone are worthy of this. You alone are God and there is no other. You are the life of my body and spirit. You are the love of my heart and soul. Your words are absorbed in my heart and treasured in my soul now and forever.

Lord, I was in someone’s house yesterday and they had the most beautiful rug. I wanted such a rug for my house. I almost envied them. Then I caught myself. What difference does it make how I decorate things? Help me look at the beauty of their souls instead. Help me want what I have and no more. All I need is you.

Thank you, God, for the little birds I see outside my window each morning. There they are, ready to greet me. And the sun. Each morning it rises just to say, “I’m back. Didn’t I promise you I would be?”. The darkness is good because it makes me rest. But how I love the morning and the world waking up with it. And thank you for pouring your heart out to the world in your Bible. Now I can know you and have no doubts. How many in this world are willing to pour out their heart to others as you did? I think the world is your song.

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OldOldTunes-ThumbnailTHE OLD OLD STORY SET TO OLD OLD TUNES.  All songs are set to folk tunes.  Forty about the Old Testament and forty about the New Testament.  Sing with friends and family on Zoom.  Or with grandchildren when they visit. Or for music lessons of homeschoolers.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://bit.ly/2YwJVHI

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/links-to-some-of-my-fun-bible-stuff/the-old-old-story-set-to-old-old-tunes/

They Rocked the Cradle that Rocked the World

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

book cover3a front-MED“[the Magi/Wisemen] asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

There are people who believe the “star of Bethlehem” was in the east. But the star wasn’t in the east; the wise men (Magi) were.

The Christmas carol says the star led the wise men the whole way. But Matthew 2:9 & 10 says, “After they had heard the king [Herod], they went on their way, and the star they HAD seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.”

They rejoiced when they saw the star again, not because it had been with them the whole time, but because it had reappeared.

The Christmas carol also speaks of them as “We Three Kings.” First, there were three gifts but could have been an entourage of ten or twenty or more. Second, they were not kings.  It wasn’t until 600 AD that someone named them as the king of Arabia, king of India and King of Persia. The original language calls them Magi which is a tribe of astrologers and priests in Babylon and Parthia.

By the way, the manger scenes show the wise men there with the shepherds on the night Jesus was born.  Jesus was around two years old by the time the wise men figured out the meaning of the star and traveled over 1000 miles to get there, following by boy babies killed ages two and under.

Then there are the carols that say the angels sang are wrong. Angels do not sing. Christians do, but angels do not. Check it out.  There are so many things about the Bible that we have heard all our lives and just assume are true. Here’s an idea: Investigate things for yourself! Why take a teaching about the Bible for granted? You’re smart. You can do it. Will you?

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book cover3a front-THUMBTHEY ROCKED THE CRADLE THAT ROCKED THE WORLD is the stories of everyone in the Bible involved in the birth of Jesus.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this:  https://bit.ly/ChristmasNovelsStories

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/they-rocked-the-cradle-that-rocked-the-world/

Holy Tears

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-KindleMedium“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?  He also had two grandsons who fought each other all the time ~ Jacob and Esau.  Again, what went wrong? He was a godly man. His son, Isaac was a godly man?  How could this have happened when they tried to raise their sons right?

Just as God has given each of us free will, our children and grandchildren 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. And try not to weep too often.

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04-Isaac&Jacob-KindleThumbnailA CHILD’S BIBLE HEROES: ISAAC AND JACOB is a book of hope for dysfunctional families.  Twins Jacob and Esau fought all the time. Then Jacob stole from Esau, so Jacob ran away.  For twenty years they were apart and missed each other and eventually forgave each other.  What a reunion it was.  How happy Isaac must have been.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://bit.ly/3rcRNtZ

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Let loose, then cling

COVER-Music-medThe scripture for today, January 25 (1/25), is James 1:25 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it ~ he will be blessed in what he does.”

A lot of people do not understand that there was the Law of Moses with over 600 commands in the Old Testament, and the Law of Jesus with very few commands in the New Testament. Religious leaders use the Law of Moses to justify adding fancy or fun things to worship or a separate priesthood or tithing, or whatever they like. 

But they leave out stoning for adultery or disobeying your parents, killing someone who killed your relative, knocking the eye out of someone who knocked your eye out, giving a third of your income (not just a tenth), killing animals to sacrifice, etc.  It’s all part of the same Law!

Romans 7:4-7 says Christians have been released from the Law. Hebrews 8:13 & all of chapter 9 say the first covenant (testament/law) of Moses had regulations for worship but is obsolete in favor of the new covenant (testament/law). James 2:10 says if you try to live by the old Law but fail in just one point, you are guilty of all of it.

But how are you to know what was in the Old Law of Moses besides the fancy or fun things today’s religious leaders like?  There is only one possible answer:  Read it.  Plow through Leviticus and all those minute codes. Then you will understand.

Let us truly let loose of the old Law of Moses and cling to the “perfect Law that gives freedom” in Christ.

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COVER-Music-thumbINSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH is volume II in the RESTORATION REPRINT LIBRARY OF NORTHERN LIGHTS PUBLISHING HOUSE.  It was written by Presbyterian theologian in the 1800s, a masterpiece.  The most thorough work on this topic out there.  A must for every church library.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or past this……….https://bit.ly/3lYBDB7

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/instrumental-music-in-the-public-worship-of-the-church/

 

 

The God of Second Chances

00-PAUL COVER-Medium-God, you love every one of your children and we love you in return. But sometimes someone wanders away. You need to leave the rest of us behind to find the lost one and that is fine with me. I will be okay while you’re gone. Oh, me? You mean me? You want me to go for you, and find your missing child? Ah, let me think a moment. Are you sure?  Ummm…  Yes, yes! If you will fill my spirit with your kind of love, then I must go. I will not be able to resist the search. Help me find the lost soul in time. Give me courage to go where ever I must go. And, Lord, help that lost one keep praising you until I arrive.  Me too. I will keep praising you.

Ah, my Lord, I grow so impatient sometimes, waiting for my time to join you ~ impatient over days and months and years. How you must laugh because you work in decades and centuries and millenniums.  Thank you for time.  All things change and all things will eventually pass away.  With time, the consequences of my sins eventually pass away. You give me an opportunity to try again. You are the God of second chances. I will forever bend my knee to you in the shimmering gratitude that permeates my soul.

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00-PAUL COVER-Thumbnail-PAUL: THE UNSTOPPABLE.  He had to change sides to obey God.  He’s been wrong.  He had to admit it. It took sudden blindness and a voice out of heaven to stop him and make him turn around.  He spent the rest of his life doing the same for others. Constantly stopping people, making them think of what they are doing with their lives, then turning them around to march in victory toward the gates of heaven.  Was it convenient?  They beat him, starved him, imprisoned him, lashed him, stoned him ~ but nothing stopped him.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….  https://bit.ly/UnstoppablePaul

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/books-more-biblical-historical-novels/book-2-paul-the-unstoppable/