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Posts Tagged ‘Jesus’

What pleases God?

Posted in Challenge verse, God, Jesus, love, pleases the Lord, tagged , , , , , on January 27, 2013| 3 Comments »

 
Love the Lord your God
 with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your mind
and find out what pleases the Lord.
 
Matthew 22:37 & Ephesians 5:10
 
 
 
Loving somebody and wanting to please them go hand in hand.  This is a natural connection — a relationship connection that the Lord wants to have with us.  Recently, I have been noticing many verses that mention some form of the word “please,”and I would like to share some of them with you:
 
We have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him.  And this is his command: to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us. (1 John 3:21-23)
 
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. (Romans 8:8)
 
Jesus said, “The one who sent me is with me; He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him.”  (John 8:29)
 
I urge you in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. (Romans 12:1)
 
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. (Romans 14:17-18)
 
My righteous one will live by faith.  I will not be pleased with the one who shrinks back. (Hebrews 10:39)
 
We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. (1 Thessalonians 2:1)
 
Since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all
spiritual wisdom and understanding.  And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. (Colossians 1:9-10)
 
And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” (Exodus  33:17)
 
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
 
“Is this pleasing in your sight Lord?” is a question that should filter our thoughts and actions.  A great love for the Lord is the motivation for wanting every aspect of our lives to be pleasing to Him.
 

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God’s Words

Posted in Challenge verse, God, Jesus, words, tagged , , , on January 19, 2013| 5 Comments »

“… my words remain in you …”
 
~Jesus
 
 
During this first month of 2013, I have been talking to my children about ways that we can keep more of God’s words in our hearts and minds.  We have also been talking about why it is important to do so.  My goal for my family is this: each day we will hear or read one or more verses from the Bible.  The phrase from John 15:7, “my words remain in you,” has shaped this goal.  To reach our goal, we have to make deliberate behavioral choices.  Ideally, I would like to read my children a Bible story each day, but often (for various reasons) it doesn’t happen.  However, I try to create a climate where hearing God’s word is natural part of our day.  We talk about different verses throughout the day, and when we are in the car, we sometimes listen to a recording of the book of Psalms.  After dinner, sometimes we read from one of the gospels or from the book of Proverbs.  I try to provide a variety of ways for my kids to interact with scripture so they won’t feel like it is a burden or boring.  If we have had an extremely busy day and they haven’t heard any of God’s words during the day, I like to add a scripture to our traditional bedtime song and prayer.  Having this goal of hearing and reading God’s word each day helps me keep my children, and as well as myself, receiving daily spiritual nourishment.
 
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourself to be my disciples. John 15:7
 
 
Dedicated to my mom, Charlotte on her 70th birthday.  I have wonderful memories of my mom reading me Bible stories, reading me Little Visits with God at breakfast, and reading family devotionals after dinner.  As I was growing up, my mom helped me hear God’s words every day. 
 

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If you had known what would bring you peace …

Posted in grief, Peace, tagged , , , , on December 14, 2012| 2 Comments »

 
“If you had only known on this day
 
what would bring you peace.” 
 
— Jesus
 
 
As Jesus was crying, looking at Jerusalem, he said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace — but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.  They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.  They will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”  Luke 19:41-44   
 
Are there ways that we are like Jerusalem?  Does Jesus look at our lives and weep because we do not accept the peace he is offering?  Does he cry because we do not recognize the time of God coming to us?
 
The path of peace is being offered to
 
us, but we have to choose daily to
 
walk on it.
 
Thank you to Larry Cline, whose sermon inspired this post.  He posed the question, “What does Jesus find when he looks at my life?” and made the statement, “I pray that Jesus doesn’t cry when he looks at my life.”
 
 
This post was edited early this week, and was scheduled to post today.  In light of today’s tragedy in Connecticut, I almost didn’t post it.  I decided to go ahead, because especially today, we need to know the peace and comfort that Jesus is offering.  When people turn away from God, evil is increasingly apparent.  In the above verse, Jesus was predicting the consequences of the people of Jerusalem’s behavior.  Our country is experiencing the consequences of our godless ways.  Violence is continually erupting in our land.  Our only hope is to “recognize the time of God coming to us.”  My thoughts and prayers are with the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School.
 

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Praise: The Path of Peace

Posted in Challenge verse, God's Presence, Jesus, Peace, praise, tagged , , , on December 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
Through Jesus let us continually offer
 
to God a sacrifice of praise.
 
Hebrews 13:15
 
 
As we enter the Advent season, let it be a time of sacrificial praise. 
 
Praise be to the Lord because He has come to rescue us and enable us to serve us Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.  Praise be to the Lord, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.  Adapted from Luke 2:68-79 
 
 
Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim You,
who walk in the light of Your presence, O Lord.
Psalm 89:15
 

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With the Lord Forever

Posted in Challenge verse, Friends, grief, Jesus, tagged , , , on March 4, 2012| 1 Comment »

My eyes are dim with grief. 
I call to you, Lord, every day;
I spread out my hands to you.
 
 Psalm 88:9
~
~
On Friday night, I went to bed thinking about Psalm 88:9 and asking myself the question,”Can you ever be prepared for grief?” On Saturday, I woke up to the news that Ty, the son of my close friends Ty and Nancy, had been in a serious car accident and was on life support.  Then this morning, I received the gut-wrenching news, “Ty is gone.  They are donating his organs.”
~
The devastating sorrow I now feel is answering my own question: “No, you can never be prepared for grief.  You can only be prepared to receive comfort by knowing the source of true comfort.”
~
No guilt in life, no fear in death —
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from his hand;
Till he returns or calls me home —
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.
~
  by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
~
~

“So we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.” — Paul
~
~
In honor of Ty Osman II
A beautiful man of God

 

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Comfort Overflows

Posted in Challenge verse, God, heart, Jesus, love, soul, tagged , , , , on February 29, 2012| 4 Comments »

For just as the sufferings of Christ
flow over into our lives, so also through
Christ our comfort overflows.
 
2 Corinthians 1:5
 
 
Suffering does have a purpose
Though it hurts beyond words
He endured the pain
All the rejection and shame
Physical – Emotional
His heart was like wax
that melted away
He then died for me
 
I fall on my knees
His story touches my soul
Takes me to the heart of God
Embraces my pain
Gives me power to love
 
I seek the silence
When I am quiet I hear
The whisper
Of a love larger than me
Surrounding my soul with joy
 
Do you hear the invitation
To come and rest in His peace
To drink the living water
Receive Divine Love
 
Terry S. Smith
my precious daddy
 
My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me ….  But you, O Lord, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me.  Psalm 22:13-14,19
 

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What pleases God?

Posted in Challenge verse, God, Jesus, pleases the Lord, tagged , , on February 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Find out what pleases the Lord.
 
Ephesians 5:10
 
 Dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.  It is God’s will that we should be sanctified.  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light (for the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.  May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.  May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.” — Paul
“For them I sanctify myself, that they
 too may be truly sanctified.” — Jesus
 
This post is dedicated to Angie, my Bible study leader. She inspires me each week and makes sanctification easy to understand by saying things like, “God keeps working and working on us until one day we are in glory with Jesus!” She also reminds us, “God loves us just as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way.” 
 
2 Corinthians 7:1, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, Ephesians 5:8-10,
 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, John 17:19

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