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On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Daily, Inspirational, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The scripture for today, November 23, is 1st Corinthians 11:23ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 6-PROMISE KEEPER-Cover-Createspace“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ “

How the hearts of Jesus and his closest friends must have been breaking that night. How the apostles must have struggled to hold back the tears. They all knew the religious leaders in Jerusalem were plotting to execute Jesus. They knew he was taking his life in his hands to be in the city ~ their lives too. How could they part with the one they now knew was the Son of God but also the Son of Mankind ~ their dearest friend?

When we take the communion every Sunday, where are our thoughts? What we’re going to do after church? What someone sitting near us is wearing? How the person in front of us is blocking our view?

How many of us during the communion weep as Jesus’ apostles must have wept ~ and perhaps even as Jesus himself wept?

Oh, Jesus, it was my sins that caused you to go through that horrible death! My punishment! I fall at your feet. I am so sorry.

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The scripture for today, November 22, is Genesis 11:22 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

Old Testament Survey-Cover-Kindle“When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.”

How can it be that people could live so long in the early centuries of the world? Isn’t that stretching things a bit? Isn’t it just folklore? Here’s more.

Noah had his first son at age 502 (Genesis 5:32, 11:10). Noah lived a total of 950 years (Genesis 9:29). Noah’s son, Shem, had his first son at age 100, and lived a total of 600 years (Genesis 11:10-11). Now we have Serug, the 7th-generation grandson of Noah, who had his first son at age 30 and lived a total of 230 years (see above).

Do you see the trend downward of ages after the flood? Most of Noah’s life was lived before the flood. Some of Shem’s life was lived before, but most of it was after the flood. All of Serug’s life was after the flood.

Many scientists believe that the earth originally had a constant cloud covering like the planet Venus does. Genesis 2:5-6 says it had not rained yet, but a mist rose to water everything. The King James Version of the Bible regarding the flood in Genesis 7:11 says the windows of heaven were opened. Genesis 8:2 says the windows of heaven were stopped.

Notice, it did not say the windows of heaven were closed; they were just stopped, meaning it could rain again periodically after that. If, indeed, Earth did have a constant thick cloud covering before the flood, then humans would have been protected from radiation from the sun, and therefore could live longer. After the change in Earth’s atmosphere after the flood, humans being exposed to more radiation, would have lived shorter lives.

Something to think about… And, one more thought ~ rainbows wouldn’t be possible with a constant cloud covering. The flood brought us rainbows! (Genesis 9:13)

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WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLEThe scripture for today, November 21, is Acts 11:21 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.”

What had just happened? Some Christians in Phoenecia (today’s Lebanon), Cyprus (the Mediterranean Island) and Cyrene (in today’s North Africa), went to Antioch in Northern Syria near the southern border of today’s Turkey. There they established a congregation.

This little congregation ended up being the home congregation of Paul and Barnabas for many years. It started small; we don’t know the size it grew to. Regardless of the size, it had foresight and eventually did great things.

Perhaps you live in a town full of churches, but you’ve compared them with the New Testament, and none of them follows that pattern. Perhaps you have even given up going to church because of this problem. What is stopping you from beginning a little congregation after the New Testament pattern in your home?

New Testament churches were simple ~ not elaborate like those mega-churches out there. And those simple churches have always been dynamic in their simplicity. Who knows but that your new little congregation will some day produce a Paul or a Barnabas…

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Campbell-Cover-KIMBLEThe scripture for today, November 20, is Hebrews 11:20ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By faith Jacob when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons….By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.”

Do we have children that were so loving and good when they were young, but when they became older they changed? Do we sometimes wonder, “How could I have gone so wrong with my children?” True, they have free will. But do we feel like failures because our children did not turn out the way we had hoped and prayed?

Have faith ~ the faith of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Isaac blessed his sons with his land, even though he did not yet own the land. Jacob blessed his sons with power, even though they did yet not have power. Joseph blessed his sons and his brothers’ sons with the land, yet they no longer lived in it.

They all blessed their children with something they believed would happen some day, even though the evidence was not there. Why? Because they had faith in their children? Actually, it was mostly because they had faith in God. They had faith in what God would do for their children.

Let us keep on keeping on. Let us never stop having faith in what God (even after we die) will (not can, but will) do for our children.

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The scripture for today, November 19, is Ezekiel 11:19 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

CHANGES IN WORSHIP-COVER-KINDLE“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.”

Although the 600+ commandments in the Old Testament Law of Moses were nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14), God has always had laws to keep us safe. In the New Testament era he does not have a lot of laws, but he still has them.

What is our worship like? Is it full of things God never asked us to do? Does our worship elevate God or ourselves? When we’re done worshiping, do we say, “We were so great!” or “God is so great!”?

We add all kinds of things to our worship that were commanded only under the Law of Moses, or things we think would “add to the effectiveness” of our worship. If, for example, it’s okay to add things to our singing and praying because then they would sound better, then it is okay to add lemon pie to the Lord’s Supper because then it would taste better.

Again, the question: Do we deep down have a heart of stone, but put on our halo and say, “Surely not me”? Who are we worshiping and trying to please? God or ourselves?

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The scripture for today, November 18, is Deuteronomy 11:18f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 2-DREAM MAKER-COVER“Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you. Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.”

Sometimes the country we live in goes through very bad times. We pray for the bad times to end, but they do not. What is going on? The above warning was to the Israelites just before they entered their promised land. God had just said through Moses, don’t worship idols.

Perhaps our country is going through bad times because of idol worship. Probably not like the hand-made idols of ancient times, but idols of money and power and immorality. There have been times in the Bible when a good man prayed, “God, I am the only one left who worships you.” God would reply that there were a few others. But he did not reply that he was going to stop the punishing. The nation hadn’t turned back to God yet.

Therefore, when we are suffering unjustly for what a majority of our countrymen have been doing, we must do it bravely. And while we “wait it out”, let us continually remind ourselves, our families, our neighbors, our countrymen of the righteous ways they should be acting.

In bad times, this is our assignment. Let us be brave and spread the news. Let us keep reminding and be as patient with them as God is with us. Perhaps some day they will listen.

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The scripture for today, November 17, is 1st Chronicles 11:17f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 4-FOLK HERO-COVER“David longed for water and said, ‘Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem.’ So the Three broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David.”

The people who followed David admired him because he knew how to be a good leader. So many were willing to do anything to make “Captain David” happy. David had been born and raised in Bethlehem. Now he was grown and had a following of those evading power hungry King Saul, many of whom were brave soldiers. They had traveled throughout the country either evading or defending themselves against this and other enemies.

Their travels took them back to David’s home town which was being held by enemy Philistines. For old-times sake, he wanted a drink from the well he had drunk from many times in his youth. Three of his men risked their lives to bring their captain, David, that drink of water.

How much do we admire the Captain of our Salvation, Jesus? How much are we willing to sacrifice for him? Do we say, “I’m too busy to do anything for Jesus and his kingdom today”? Do we say, “I’m afraid if I say something about Jesus to so-and-so, s/he will insult me”? Do we say, “Someone at church offended me, so I’m not going to worship any more?” Do we admire Jesus enough to put ourselves in the slightest danger just to do the smallest thing for him?

The Broad Road and the Narrow Gate

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Don Merritt's avatarLife Project Blog

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Matthew 7:13-14

I find that I am often confused when I listen to or read modern day attitudes and notions, and maybe the reason for this is that they are… well, confusing.

During my secular education and training, there was the appearance of great academic freedom; all the teachers preached it, all the professors demanded it. Listening to the popular media, freedom of expression and freedom of thought are touted as the right paths. I was always taught that to be broad-minded was good, and that to be narrow-minded was bad; free-thinkers were to be lauded, if not always copied…

Yet I was a curious…

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Do you ever wonder why?

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Don Merritt's avatarLife Project Blog

moonlight

I wonder why God made the moon; what does it do? It seems like it just floats around up there and reflects light, sometimes more and sometimes less.  Does it really make any difference when you can hardly see it?  OK, I realize that it causes the whole ocean tide thing, but if the oceans just stayed in one place so to speak, would that be any big deal?

Maybe there’s quite a bit that I don’t really understand out there, but the moon; what’s to understand?  It’s just sort of extra isn’t it? If it doesn’t really do anything except reflect sunlight, then I don’t really think I believe in the moon!

Lots of people will agree with me, no doubt about that; lots of people don’t believe in church either.  “Organized religion” they call it; what’s the point?  I can worship God in nature, at home, at the…

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HARDING ALUMNI, STUDENTS, TEACHERS

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00-COVER-KINDLEThis Saturday, October 24, my autographed book, THE SAMARITAN’S QUEST will be at a special table at the alumni book signing held in the student center 10:30 to noon only.

Go on adventure after adventure as Zarus lives through most of Jesus’ parables over a period of 45 years. He goes through false imprisonment, slavery, a mine collapse, sand storm, earth quake, epidemic and kidnapping. At his side is the love of his life, Devorah.

On Amazon it has all 5-star reviews. “This is an awesome book.” “Lose yourself in this well-written story of faith.” “I don’t think you’ll be able to forget the characters.” “It is awesome.” “I found it to be hard to put down. It is an exciting, riveting, scary, happy journey.” “I plan to seek more of her writings.”

It is dedicated to Harding University; Jesus’ parables was the theme of this year’s lectureship.

Check it out on Pinterest  and  YouTube