Psalms 119:30

Psalms 119:30  

I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws.

Thoughts on this verse…

Yesterday we made a commitment to follow the Lord Jesus whole-heartedly. Let's not forget it and slip back into old habits and bad patterns. Let's choose the way of truth again today, and tomorrow, and...

Galatians 6:7-8

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit will reap eternal life."

Thoughts on this verse…

Isn't it incredible how huge trees grow out of tiny seeds! This principle runs throughout all of life. We can never completely get away from the seeds we sow. So let's don't try to fool ourselves while we're trying to do a "snow job" on God. Let's make sure the seeds we sow are the ones we want sprouting up!

Matthew 7:7-8

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

Thoughts on this verse…

Ask! So often we're afraid to ask for help because we have to admit we don't have the answers. Seek! Effort and interest and perseverance are necessary and that's sometimes hard. Knock! In an era of doorbells, this is a forgotten action. But God wants us to use the A.S.K. principle and bring our hearts before him. So let's don't just whine, complain, desire, and want. Let's A.S.K. our Father and seek his glory.

Galatians 6:1

If someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.

Thoughts on this verse…

In a day when intervening in someone's life is no longer politically and socially correct, these verses ring out like a gunshot on a still night. Sin is still real and is just as deadly as ever. Yet because we fear being branded judgmental and self-righteous, we let many who are trapped by sin go to their spiritual death. The call is for nonjudgmental intervention -- we recognize the gravity of the sin and the need of the sinner, without feeling arrogant in our righteousness. "There but for the grace of God go I."

Thoughts

~ You who are letting miserable misunderstandings run on from year to year, meaning to clear them up some day; you who are keeping wretched quarrels alive because you cannot quite make up your minds that now is the day to sacrifice your pride and kill them; you who are letting your neighbor starve until you hear that he is dying of starvation or letting your friend's heart ache for a word of appreciation or sympathy, which you mean to give him some day; if you could only know and see and feel all of a sudden that time is short, how it would break the "spell."  How you would go instantly and do the thing which you might never have another chance to do. - Phillips Brooks

~ With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? - A. W. Tozer

~ Saints are men who permit God's forgiveness to come into them so fully that not only are their sins washed out, but also their very selves, their egos, and the root of their self-will.  And again we see, the intensity of their power really to forgive is in exact proportion to the degree that they have permitted themselves to be forgiven and so brought back to God. - Unknown

~ God doesn't call people who are qualified.  He calls people who are willing, and then He qualifies them. - Richard Parker

~ Jesus taught, first, that a man's business is to do the will of God; second, that God takes upon Himself the care of that man; third, therefore, that a man must never be afraid of anything, and so, fourth, be left free to love God with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself. - George MacDonald

~ We need the whole song, all the verses and the choruses to serve us as our own story unfolds because- trust me- life is hard, but God is good. - Gloria Gaither

~ Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes real happiness.  It is not obtained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. - Helen Keller

~ Forgiveness is the greatest expression of love. - Unknown

~ Faith is knowing that God is who He says He is, has what He says He has and will do what He says He will do and then putting ourselves in a position where our lives depend on it. - Graham Steele

~ The whole point of this life is the healing of the heart's eye through which God is seen. - Augustine of Hippo

~ God wants to speak into areas of your life you have never even considered.  He wants to give you words and wisdom you didn't think were possible.  He desires to do exceedingly more than you can hope or expect. - Margaret Feinberg

~ The words of the Gospels, repeated to a child, a workman or a peasant, do not surprise him in the least.  Nothing is told with a view to effect.  Not a word in the Gospels is intended to startle. - Ernest Hello

Eternal Things

Holy Spirit

Hebrews 9:14  

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Holy Spirit among men

John 14:16  

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—

Heavens

Psalms 72:17  

May his name endure forever; may it continue as long as the sun. All nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed.

2 Corinthians 5:1  

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

Earth

Psalms 104:5  

He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.

Ecclesiastes 1:4  

Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

Promised Land to Israel

Genesis 17:8  

The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

Genesis 48:4  

And said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.’

Jeremiah 25:5  

They said, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the LORD gave to you and your fathers for ever and ever.

Draw near to God

James 4:8

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

2 Chronicles 15:2

He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

Malachi 3:7

Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

Zechariah 1:3

Therefore tell the people: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD Almighty.

Psalms 145:18

The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

Isaiah 55:6-7

6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

1 John 3:3

Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

James 1:8

he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

1 Peter 3:21

and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

1 Peter 1:22

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

Do not place your trust in yourself.

Proverbs 28:25-26

25 A greedy man stirs up dissension, but he who trusts in the LORD will prosper.

26 He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.

Proverbs 3:5-6

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Luke 18:9-14

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:

10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

2 Corinthians 1:9

Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

I am not ashamed of the Gospel

2 Timothy 1:11

And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.

1 Corinthians 2:4

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power,

1 Corinthians 1:18-24

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,

23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Acts 3:26

When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

Jeremiah 23:29

“Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

Isaiah 53:1

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 Timothy 1:16

May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.

1 Thessalonians 1:5-6

5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.

6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

Come near to God…

James 4:8

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Malachi 3:7

Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

2 Chronicles 15:2

He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

Zechariah 1:3

Therefore tell the people: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD Almighty.

Psalms 145:18

The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

1 Peter 1:22

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

Isaiah 55:6

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

1 John 3:3

Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

Time Measures

Beginning of watches - 9 A.M.

Lamentations 2:19

Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street.

Cock - crowing, midnight and just before dawn

Mark 13:35

“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn.

Mark 14:30

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”

Cool (or breeze) of the day - 2-6 P.M.

Genesis 3:8

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Heat of the day. 10 A.M. to 2 P.M.

Genesis 3:8

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Day, evening to evening or sunset to sunset

Leviticus 23:32

It is a sabbath of rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.”

11^th hour. 5 P.M.

Matthew 20:6

About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

Lord’s Day

Matthew 12:1-14

1 At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them.

2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

3 He answered, “Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.

5 Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?

6 I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.

7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue,

10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?

12 How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.

14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

Mark 2:27-28

27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Things that are not good

For man to be alone

Exodus 18:17  

Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good.

To fail in responsibility

1 Samuel 26:16  

What you have done is not good. As surely as the LORD lives, you and your men deserve to die, because you did not guard your master, the LORD's anointed. Look around you. Where are the king's spear and water jug that were near his head?”

To oppress the poor

Nehemiah 5:9  

So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn't you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies?

To plot evil and take a stand against good

Psalms 36:4  

Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong.

To overthrow the righteous in judgment

Proverbs 18:5  

It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the innocent of justice.

To be without knowledge

Proverbs 19:2  

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.

To cheat

Proverbs 20:23  

The LORD detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him.

To exalt and glorify self

Proverbs 25:21  

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

To have respect of persons

Proverbs 28:21  

To show partiality is not good— yet a man will do wrong for a piece of bread.

Obey

1 Peter 1:14

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

John 12:26

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

Genesis 49:10

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.

Psalms 66:3

Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you.

Psalms 91:11

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;

Romans 1:5

Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.

Romans 5:19

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Galatians 6:2

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

James 1:25

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.

Deuteronomy 11:26-28

26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—

27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today;

28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

Thoughts

~ The following is a quotation from the words of Dr. W. B. Hinson, speaking from the pulpit a year after the commencement of the illness from which he ultimately died:  "I remember a year ago when a man in this city said, 'You have got to go to your death.'  I walked out to where I live, five miles out of this city, and I looked across at that mountain that I love, and I looked at the river in which I rejoice, and I looked at the stately trees that are always God's own poetry to my soul.  Then in the evening I looked up into the great sky where God was lighting his lamps, and I said 'I may not see you many more times, but, Mountain, I shall be alive when you are gone; and, River, I shall be alive when you cease running toward the sea; and, Stars, I shall be alive when you have fallen from your sockets in the great down-pulling of the material universe!'"  This is the confidence of one who knew the Saviour.  Is it yours? - Advent Herald

~ Never tolerate the idea of martyrdom about the cross of Jesus Christ.  The cross was a superb triumph in which the foundations of hell were shaken.  There is nothing more certain in time or eternity than what Jesus Christ did on the cross: He switched the whole of the human race back into a right relationship with God. - Oswald Chambers

~ In Christ Jesus heaven meets earth and earth ascends to heaven. - Henry Law

~ The Easter message tells us that our enemies, sin, the curse, and death, are beaten.  Ultimately they can no longer start mischief.  They still behave as though the games were not decided, the battle not fought; we must still reckon with them, but fundamentally we must cease to fear them anymore. - Karl Barth

~ That the Potter should die for His clay is a stupendous miracle. - Lynn Landrum

~ God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. - Reinhold Niebuhr

~ Surrender the thing you fear into the hands of God.  Turn it right over to God and ask Him to solve it with you.  Fear is keeping things in your own hands; faith is turning them over into the hands of God. - E. Stanley Jones

~ Don't bother much about your feelings.  When they are humble, loving, brave, give thanks for them; when they are conceited, selfish, cowardly, ask to have them altered.  In neither case are they you, but only a thing that happens to you.  What matters is your intentions and your behavior. - C. S. Lewis

~ Faith, like light, should always be simple and unbending; while love, like warmth, should beam forth on every side, and bend to every necessity of our brethren. - Martin Luther

~ Nothing transcends the power of God.  Whether our difficulty is from Satan, others, self-inflicted, or experienced in the process of our obedience, it is God's prerogative to rearrange, reconstruct, reinterpret, and realign the situation to bring glory and praise to His name. - Joseph Stowell

Services of Life

The bread of life

John 6:35  

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

The ways of life

Acts 2:28  

You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’

The Prince of life

Acts 3:15  

You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.

The Spirit of life

Romans 8:2  

Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

The Savor of life

2 Corinthians 2:16  

To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?

The Word of life

Philippians 2:16  

as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.

1 John 1:1  

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

God Can Use You

 “You did not choose me; I chose you.” John 15:16

If you ever wonder how God can use you to make a difference in your world, just look at those he has already used and take heart. Look at the forgiveness found in his open arms and take courage.

And, by the way, never were those arms opened so wide as they were on the Roman cross. One arm extending back into history and the other reaching into the future. An embrace of forgiveness offered for anyone who’ll come.