Tag: Heaven

Scripture for Tuesday, January 24 (1/24)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn death, Death of Jesus Christ, faith, forgiveness, Heaven, Inspirational, judging, Satan, Saved from hell, truthLeave a comment

The scripture for today, January 24, is Jude 1:24 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

REV-Cover-Kindle“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy ~ “

God is perfect, and so cannot dwell with faults and imperfection. We have faults. Romans 3:23 says everyone sins. And Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. But God always has wanted us to live with him. What a dilemma!

God solved our problem at great expense. He sent His Son, Jesus, to earth who lived the faultless life for us. Then God offered His perfect Son, His only Son, Jesus, to die in our place.

After that, God told the world that He would consider us “without fault” vicariously through Jesus. He’s already paid the penalty for our sins. All we have to do is believe He did and follow his instructions to keep us out of hell.

How amazing ~ God’s love for us!

#Crucifixion, #Sin, #Punishment, #Wages, #Forgiveness, #Heaven, #Hell, #Satan, #Jesus

Scripture for Saturday, January 14 (1/14)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn blessings, Daily, Inspirational, worshipLeave a comment

The scripture for today, January 14, is Hebrews 1:14 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Letters-of-Apostles2-Cover-Kindle“Are not all angels ministering spirits, sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”

Have you ever wondered if the Bible really mentions guardian angels? Well, here it is. But the angels do not minister to everyone ~ just to the saved who will inherit salvation.

As much as they minister to us, however, we are not to worship them and we are not to pray to them. For awhile, it was popular to collect pictures and statues of angels. Some people were saying there is no God, but there are guardian angels. Where did they think angels come from? We are not to adore, worship or pray to angels (Revelation 19:10; 22:9). We are just to be grateful for them.

Let us thank God that he loves us enough to send the angels to minister to us until we reach the safety of his home, heaven.

#Angels, #MinisteringSpirits, #Worship, #Prayer, #GuardianAngels, #Heaven

Scripture for Friday, January 13 (1/13)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn death, forgiveness, Heaven, Inspirational, Satan, Saved from hellLeave a comment

The scripture for today, January 13, is Habakkuk 1:13 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 7-SHADOW OF DEATH-Cover“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.”

This pretty much explains why none of us deserves heaven. Only sinless people can be in heaven. Of course, we cannot be sinless. For thousands of years, God let mankind try any way we could to be perfect. Some people he gave the Law of Moses to, and some people he continued to let try on their own. Neither worked. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t get it right.

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). So, God gave us a temporary fix: We could kill an animal to die in our place, and offer it as a sacrifice, to take onto itself God’s rage at destructive sin.

But Galatians 4:4 says, “When the time was come, God sent his Son.” Finally, when mankind understood we needed outside help, God sent Jesus. Hebrews 4:15 says Jesus lived the perfect life that was impossible for us to live; he was completely free of sin. Then God offered his Son as the final sacrifice to die in our place ~ to be falsely accused of all the sins that WE had committed, to take onto himself God’s anger, rage, and fury at OUR sins, to collect the terrible wages Satan metes out ~ death ~ for OUR sins.

That done, God ~ who can only dwell with sinlessness ~ is able to allow obedient, faithful people into his home, heaven.

#Heaven, #Hell, #WagesOfSin, #Sin, #Satan, #Jesus, #Sacrifice, #Crucifixion, #Perfection

Scripture for Wednesday, January 11 (1/11)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn blessings, death, Heaven, InspirationalLeave a comment

The scripture for today, January 11, is 2nd Peter 1:11 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

REV-Cover-Kindle“And you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

How often do we forget that earth is not our home? As an old gospel song says, “We’re just traveling through.” Do we really believe that? If someone told us tomorrow that we were going to die, would we go into a panic? Would we beg God to let us live another ten or twenty years? Would we feel this was the beginning of the end?

To a Christian, our dying is the end of the beginning. We have a whole “life” ahead of us in heaven. A never-ending life. Do we live like we believe it? Will we die looking forward to it?

#Heaven, #Death, #Dying, #Earth, #Life

Scriptures for December 30 & 31 (12/30 & 12/31)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Daily, Heaven, Holy Spirit, InspirationalLeave a comment

0-cover-kindle-new-mediumThe Scripture for today, December 30, is Matthew 12:30, as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”

You mean we can’t just drift along just showing up at church services and that is all? We must gather people to him. It’s important that we do so. Are we doing it? Or are we too afraid?

Deep down inside, most people fear that, if we bring Jesus into a conversation, people will do us great harm and become dangerous enemies. Although in some countries of the world this is true, in most it is not. But still, we quake at the thought of bringing up Jesus to our friends, and even to strangers.

It can be done. Give it a try. If it were your soul, would you want someone to at least try to save you? Dare to be a gatherer today.

Cover-Kindle-smallThe scripture for today, December 31, is Luke 12:31 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“But seek his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well.”

Do we actively seek God’s kingdom? Or do we drift and feel like God should feel obligated to take us into his kingdom and into his heaven? Do we feel like we’re “not so bad”, so God would be bad to not take us into his kingdom and into his heaven?

Heaven is God’s home, not ours. God has a door into his home, just like we have a door into our home. God is not required to open that door to just anyone, just like we are not required to open our door to just anyone.  We cannot just show up at the door and smile and assume he will let us in, any more than people who knock on our door and smile can assume we will let them in.

We let people into our home who we have gotten to know and whose motives we trust. Have you given God a chance to get to know you and trust your motives? Are your motives to enter heaven, God’s home? Do you even like God?

This life we live on earth is not our permanent life or residence. This is just the foyer to our eternal home. Do we live like the earth is all there is?

#GoodWorks, #Drifting, #Heaven, #Lukewarm, #Kingdom, #Church, #TrueChristianity, #DayOfJudgment

 

 

 

 

Scripture for Thursday, December 29 (12/29)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn good works, Heaven, Inspirational, judging, SatanLeave a comment

The scripture for today, December 29, is Deuteronomy 12:29 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-cover-kindle-new-medium“The Lord your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess.”

Why would a good God drive people (the Amorite nations) from their own land so that other people (the Jews) could live there? Way back in Genesis 15, God promised Abraham that his descendants would possess the land he lived in as a wanderer, but first they would be enslaved in a foreign country some 400 years. During that time they would multiply. Indeed, they did grow from 70 of Abraham’s grandchildren to over three million.

Then it would be time for his descendants to possess the land. Why so long in the future?  Verse 16 explains it: “For the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” God always gives people plenty of time to repent and change. Now God was using the Jews to punish the Amorites.

The Jews did finally possess the Promised Land, but God warned them, “If you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you” (Leviticus 18:28). Indeed, they did eventually defile the land with their own sins, so several centuries later, they were dispossessed and forced to go to Assyria and Babylon by their conquerors.

Yes, God keeps his promises ~ to both good and bad. Today, regardless of the condition of the nation we live in on earth, let us look ahead to that even better promise of an even better land ~ that spiritual Promised Land ~ heaven. And it will be forever good.

#Promises, #Punishment, #PromisedLand, #Heaven

Scripture for Sunday, December 18 (12/18)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Heaven, Inspirational, Scripture, worshipLeave a comment

Scripture for Thursday, December 8 (12/8)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Daily, Inspirational, worshipLeave a comment

The scripture for today, December 8, is Ecclesiastes 12:8 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

REV-Cover-Kindle” ‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the teacher. ‘Everything is meaningless!’ “

About thirty-five years ago some Christians in England did a sidewalk survey in the downtown of a major city. One of their inquiries was: “What question about your life do you ask the most?”. The answer almost always was, “Why am I here? What is life all about?”

The entire book of Ecclesiastes is about all the things that the richest and most powerful man in the world did in order to have an enjoyable and fulfilling life: He built mansions and grand temples, he cultivated great gardens, he brought in gold and precious stones and fabrics from around the globe, he had numerous wives and mistresses, he built the largest army and navy in the world, he studied every possible subject. At the end, he said it was all meaningless. 

The meaning of our life is that we were born to die. This life is temporary. This life is the foyer of the life we will have eternally ~ a life in heaven or hell. We were not put here just to have fun, but rather to take as many people with us to heaven as possible. 

How do we do that? By continually studying and following our manual the Bible that our Creator gave to guide us through this temporary life and into our eternal life ~ our final destination ~ and encouraging others to do the same. Then applying it to our everyday life. That is the meaning of life.

#Life, #Purpose, #Meaning, #Things, #Stuff, #Money, #Wealth, #WineWomenSong, #Hedoism, #Excess, #Born, #Heaven, #Hell

Scripture for Monday, October 3 (10/3)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn faith, InspirationalLeave a comment

The scripture for today, October 3, is John 10:3ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

REV-Cover-Kindle“The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out….I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”

First of all, we use the term saved/salvation so loosely, we tend to forget what we are being saved from. We are being saved from hell! This is not a minuscule matter.

Second, how do we avoid hell? Through Jesus! This is the only way.

How many of us have been to funerals where the deceased was preached into heaven? So many people believe they are “good enough” or “not too bad” and so God would be horrible to not let them into heaven. Such people will climb in through windows so to speak into heaven as the “thieves and robbers” Jesus referred to.

But heaven is God’s home, not ours. He has a gate into it, just like we have doors on our house. Just like we are not obligated to open the gate or door into our home to just anyone, God is not obligated to open his gate to just anyone.

Our door and God’s gate are there for a reason. Let us enter heaven through the gate ~ Jesus. Then God will smile and say, “Welcome home.”

#DoorToHeaven #GateToHeaven

Scripture for Sunday, September 4 (9/4)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn InspirationalLeave a comment

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

0-Cover-KINDLE“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 that 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. Mostly they don’t like his 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.

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’ commands, God considers us perfect by proxy. One of his commands is to be baptized in the name of God the Father, God the Son/Word, and God the Holy Spirit.

God treats us the way we treat him. If we don’t want God in our life, God doesn’t want us in his life. God never forces anyone to agree with him or spend time with him here on earth so they can live with him in his heaven.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: DESCRIBE WHAT IT IS LIKE TO ENDURE THE DEATH OF A LOVED ONE WHO NEVER WAS INTERESTED IN GOD.

#Bible, #GodsCommands, #baptism, #heaven