Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
2 Kings 6:1-33 -
The Floating Ax Head
1One day the group of prophets came to Elisha and told him, "As you can see, this place where we meet with you is too small. 2Let's go down to the Jordan River, where there are plenty of logs. There we can build a new place for us to meet." "All right," he told them, "go ahead."
3"Please come with us," someone suggested. "I will," he said.
4When they arrived at the Jordan, they began cutting down trees. 5But as one of them was chopping, his ax head fell into the river. "Ah, my lord!" he cried. "It was a borrowed ax!"
6"Where did it fall?" the man of God asked. When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water. Then the ax head rose to the surface and floated. 7"Grab it," Elisha said to him. And the man reached out and grabbed it.
Elisha Traps the Arameans
8When the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he would confer with his officers and say, "We will mobilize our forces at such and such a place."
9But immediately Elisha, the man of God, would warn the king of Israel, "Do not go near that place, for the Arameans are planning to mobilize their troops there." 10So the king of Israel would send word to the place indicated by the man of God, warning the people there to be on their guard. This happened several times.
11The king of Aram became very upset over this. He called in his officers and demanded, "Which of you is the traitor? Who has been informing the king of Israel of my plans?"
12"It's not us, my lord," one of the officers replied. "Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel even the words you speak in the privacy of your bedroom!"
13The king commanded, "Go and find out where Elisha is, and we will send troops to seize him." And the report came back: "Elisha is at Dothan." 14So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city. 15When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. "Ah, my lord, what will we do now?" he cried out to Elisha.
16"Don't be afraid!" Elisha told him. "For there are more on our side than on theirs!" 17Then Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes and let him see!" The LORD opened his servant's eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.
18As the Aramean army advanced toward them, Elisha prayed, "O LORD, please make them blind." And the LORD did as Elisha asked. 19Then Elisha went out and told them, "You have come the wrong way! This isn't the right city! Follow me, and I will take you to the man you are looking for." And he led them to Samaria. 20As soon as they had entered Samaria, Elisha prayed, "O LORD, now open their eyes and let them see." And the LORD did, and they discovered that they were in Samaria.
21When the king of Israel saw them, he shouted to Elisha, "My father, should I kill them?"
22"Of course not!" Elisha told him. "Do we kill prisoners of war? Give them food and drink and send them home again to their master."
23So the king made a great feast for them and then sent them home to their king. After that, the Aramean raiders stayed away from the land of Israel.
Ben-Hadad Besieges Samaria
24Some time later, however, King Ben-hadad of Aram mobilized his entire army and besieged Samaria. 25As a result there was a great famine in the city. After a while even a donkey's head sold for two pounds of silver, and a cup of dove's dung cost about two ounces F14 of silver.
26One day as the king of Israel was walking along the wall of the city, a woman called to him, "Please help me, my lord the king!"
27"If the LORD doesn't help you, what can I do?" he retorted. "I have neither food nor wine to give you." 28But then the king asked, "What is the matter?" She replied, "This woman proposed that we eat my son one day and her son the next. 29So we cooked my son and ate him. Then the next day I said, 'Kill your son so we can eat him,' but she had hidden him."
30When the king heard this, he tore his clothes in despair. And as the king walked along the wall, the people could see that he was wearing sackcloth underneath next to his skin. 31"May God kill me if I don't execute Elisha son of Shaphat this very day," the king vowed.
32Elisha was sitting in his house at a meeting with the leaders of Israel when the king sent a messenger to summon him. But before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the leaders, "A murderer has sent a man to kill me. When he arrives, shut the door and keep him out. His master will soon follow him."
33While Elisha was still saying this, the messenger arrived. And the king F15 said, "It is the LORD who has brought this trouble on us! Why should I wait any longer for the LORD?"
FOOTNOTES:F14: Hebrew sold for 80 shekels [0.9 kilograms] of silver, and 1/4 of a cab [0.3 liters] of dove's dung cost 5 shekels [57 grams]. Dove's dung may be a variety of wild vegetable. F15: Hebrew he.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
Oh man, this story is so cool. Elisha is a prophet of God, a representative for God in the earth. Things had been happening, he’d been teaching others about God and the people who were coming to hear were increasing. They wanted to make the place bigger so that even more people could come and become a part of what they were being a part of.
One sign of maturity in God’s kingdom is the desire to work and serve God and His people. These had that desire, they saw a need and wanted to meet it. They wanted their teacher to be there to see that they’d made this progression in growth. They were doing/being what they’d been being taught.
Doing what we’ve been taught is not always easy, in fact to some it feels impossible, especially when a mishap occurs. That axe head represents our mistakes and shortcomings, the impossibilities we face when we decide to go forth and go ahead and grow up and especially whenever we decide to be a part of serving in God’s house. We hit “walls” resistances that do not want to allow us to go on with serving God or his people. There are always barricades of some sort to keep us from going on. Ever notice you get involved at church up to a certain point and then shrink back and feel you just can’t do anymore? Or maybe you felt like serving, but now you don’t and every other thing seems to come up and want to take the place of serving, you’ve lost that grateful feeling? This is an example of that happening.
If that axe head sunk and stayed sunk, there’d be no possible way he could continue the work, right? In fact he’d have had to pay a pretty price for having participated in the work! Finding the axe head would be a miracle, but a much needed one. IF there was a way to find it, the work and participation in the work could happen. This is the part people can easily miss.
Finding the axe head and making the miracle happen that keeps us growing in the work of God is imperative. We also must participate in its finding and retrieving. How do we do that? Embrace the wood. What’s the wood? The wood is sacrifice unto God, where my flesh is laid down. Where I schedule the work of God into my life, not de-schedule it and place it in a secondary or less spot. From going to regular church services, to serving in nursery or being a regular part of your cell group, all of this is what I mean by actively participating in the family of God and bringing the increase. We actually will not and cannot increase and help others to get some of what we have if we do not continue and step up further into the work ourselves. We actually prepare the way for others to come and learn as we also have learned.
You mean I have to get a hold of the work of God while laying down my life? Yes. You mean I have to change? Yes. I thought miracles just happen, I don’t have to do anything, I like that. Yeah, your flesh likes that, because it does not want to disappear so He will appear. Embracing the wood, fuel for burning, is the way to make the miracle of change happen. To take it from a happening to a reality.
We have paid dearly for a whole lot of nothing, a whole lot of emptiness. Why are we not willing to give our whole lives into that which is eternal in nature? Actually when we will not and we refuse to give into the work of God, allowing everything in this life to come before it in importance, we end up bringing a curse on the earth, the earth begins to groan, enemies arise and come against us and we wonder why. We did not fight against them by being in our places in the house of God to further the work of God. Now we’re up against something, it is a product of uncrucified flesh.
It is so the mercy and grace of God to keep bringing us the offers, up until we no longer have any days left on earth. God has a big big work to be done, He needs as many as will. He’ll take whosoever will into His family business. It’s so His grace to keep offering me opportunities. Hey do you want to come to cell group? Would you serve in Children’s church? How about be in church Sunday, Wednesday and for special assemblies, the more the merrier, right? Right. Why? He’s assembling an army against His enemies. Are there more here with us? Yes there are! In the angelic realm it is a given, how about in our natural realm, it is obviously an option, but how many will opt to, now, later on or in the end? Whosoever will, lay down the others things of their lives to live in resurrection life of Christ to accomplish the will of the Father God, which is love.
Will you?
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Friday, May 05, 2006
2 Corinthians 4 Today
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
2 Corinthians 4:1-18 -
Paul Is Faithful In Preaching The Good News
1Through God's loving-kindness, He has given us this job to do. So we do not give up. 2We have put away all things that are done in secret and in shame. We do not play with the Word of God or use it in a false way. Because we are telling the truth, we want men's hearts to listen to us. God knows our desires.
3If the Good News we preach is hidden, it is hidden to those who are lost in sin. 4The eyes of those who do not believe are made blind by Satan who is the god of this world. He does not want the light of the Good News to shine in their hearts. This Good News shines as the shining-greatness of Christ. Christ is as God is. 5We do not preach about ourselves. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord. We are your servants because of Jesus. 6It was God Who said, "The light will shine in darkness." (Genesis 1:3) He is the One Who made His light shine in our hearts. This brings us the light of knowing God's shining-greatness which is seen in Christ's face.
7We have this light from God in our human bodies. This shows that the power is from God. It is not from ourselves. 8We are pressed on every side, but we still have room to move. We are often in much trouble, but we never give up. 9People make it hard for us, but we are not left alone. We are knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10We carry marks on our bodies that show the death of Jesus. This is how Jesus makes His life seen in our bodies. 11Every day of our life we face death because of Jesus. In this way, His life is seen in our bodies. 12Death is working in us because we work for the Lord, but His life is working in you.
13The Holy Writings say, "I believed, so I spoke." (Psalm 116:10) We have the same kind of faith as David had. We also believe, so we speak. 14We know that God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. He will raise us up also. God will take us to Himself and He will take you. 15These things happened for your good. As more people receive God's favor, they will give thanks for the shining-greatness of God.
Life Now - Life In Heaven
16This is the reason we do not give up. Our human body is wearing out. But our spirits are getting stronger every day. 17The little troubles we suffer now for a short time are making us ready for the great things God is going to give us forever. 18We do not look at the things that can be seen. We look at the things that cannot be seen. The things that can be seen will come to an end. But the things that cannot be seen will last forever.
Copyright Statement: New Life BibleScripture quotations are from the New Life Bible, copyright © 1969 by Christian Literature International. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
I believed, so I spoke. We believe, so we speak.
It takes a “me” to make a “we”, and a “we” to make a “Him”, a visible “Him” in the earth.
True belief in Christ is evidenced in speaking. Maturity in Christ is evidenced in speaking.
Just as when an infant comes forth from the womb and has no words, so are we when we first come to Christ. We are astounded, overwhelmed with the new life we’ve received, we stand in awe- speechless. Soon and very soon we begin to speak about this wonder and His awesomeness. As we continue to grow we speak more and more replacing our words with His words as we study and become His words in a daily walk with Him..
Ever read in Acts about when they were filled with the Holy Spirit they began to speak…their tongues were loosed from intimidating spirits and spirits of muteness? Another evidence was, that they spoke boldly.
I believed therefore I spoke- to you about Christ. We now both believe and now we both speak about Christ, etc., etc., etc. It takes a “me” to make a “we” and a “we” to make a “Him”- visible in the earth.
How visible is He to your world?
As bright as a light in darkness? So be it. Light be in My world, all of the world I walk through everyday. Bring light into darkness Oh Lord through me and through us.
The entrance of His word brings light (into a place that was dark). So I’m a doer of His words- that I’ve learned from reading the Bible and studying in church or at home. I don’t just sit and hear it, I listen intently, to intently learn, as a student of the word, who wants change to come into my life by the word of God. I hear the word and begin to immediately apply it in my own life. I become the word and the word becomes me. It begins to shine bright enough that others see the changes being made in me by the word of God at work, having its way with me. I am now one with the word. I am the living word in demonstration. The word was allowed to live in me, put on flesh in me, so people could see its living example.
So I enter a room…….the entrance of His word brings LIGHT!
Do you honorably carry in your body the marks of the LORD Jesus?
That means I change from who I am to who He is and it is so visible that others see it without me telling them. They see the old me with my old desires and my old thinking, change and die. They want to know where that old Lena went and I can tell them she went to a spiritual grave.
If that old dead men tries to rise up as its old self, everyone around me says it stinks, can see who’s really alive in me now, and It ain’t Jesus.
Notice I capitalized “Lord”?
There are NO marks if Jesus is not Lord, and Lord does not mean Savior. He came to save the whole world, He IS the Savior of the world and only really the the Lord of those who make Him so, by placing their lives under His governorship. In the “end” He is Lord of All, those who surrender and those who do not, but some He will have known and others He will not.
It would be better to go ahead and surrender now, so it will be clear who He knows and who He does not know.
THIS IS how Isaiah 58:12 begins to unfold and manifest.
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
2 Corinthians 4:1-18 -
Paul Is Faithful In Preaching The Good News
1Through God's loving-kindness, He has given us this job to do. So we do not give up. 2We have put away all things that are done in secret and in shame. We do not play with the Word of God or use it in a false way. Because we are telling the truth, we want men's hearts to listen to us. God knows our desires.
3If the Good News we preach is hidden, it is hidden to those who are lost in sin. 4The eyes of those who do not believe are made blind by Satan who is the god of this world. He does not want the light of the Good News to shine in their hearts. This Good News shines as the shining-greatness of Christ. Christ is as God is. 5We do not preach about ourselves. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord. We are your servants because of Jesus. 6It was God Who said, "The light will shine in darkness." (Genesis 1:3) He is the One Who made His light shine in our hearts. This brings us the light of knowing God's shining-greatness which is seen in Christ's face.
7We have this light from God in our human bodies. This shows that the power is from God. It is not from ourselves. 8We are pressed on every side, but we still have room to move. We are often in much trouble, but we never give up. 9People make it hard for us, but we are not left alone. We are knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10We carry marks on our bodies that show the death of Jesus. This is how Jesus makes His life seen in our bodies. 11Every day of our life we face death because of Jesus. In this way, His life is seen in our bodies. 12Death is working in us because we work for the Lord, but His life is working in you.
13The Holy Writings say, "I believed, so I spoke." (Psalm 116:10) We have the same kind of faith as David had. We also believe, so we speak. 14We know that God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. He will raise us up also. God will take us to Himself and He will take you. 15These things happened for your good. As more people receive God's favor, they will give thanks for the shining-greatness of God.
Life Now - Life In Heaven
16This is the reason we do not give up. Our human body is wearing out. But our spirits are getting stronger every day. 17The little troubles we suffer now for a short time are making us ready for the great things God is going to give us forever. 18We do not look at the things that can be seen. We look at the things that cannot be seen. The things that can be seen will come to an end. But the things that cannot be seen will last forever.
Copyright Statement: New Life BibleScripture quotations are from the New Life Bible, copyright © 1969 by Christian Literature International. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
I believed, so I spoke. We believe, so we speak.
It takes a “me” to make a “we”, and a “we” to make a “Him”, a visible “Him” in the earth.
True belief in Christ is evidenced in speaking. Maturity in Christ is evidenced in speaking.
Just as when an infant comes forth from the womb and has no words, so are we when we first come to Christ. We are astounded, overwhelmed with the new life we’ve received, we stand in awe- speechless. Soon and very soon we begin to speak about this wonder and His awesomeness. As we continue to grow we speak more and more replacing our words with His words as we study and become His words in a daily walk with Him..
Ever read in Acts about when they were filled with the Holy Spirit they began to speak…their tongues were loosed from intimidating spirits and spirits of muteness? Another evidence was, that they spoke boldly.
I believed therefore I spoke- to you about Christ. We now both believe and now we both speak about Christ, etc., etc., etc. It takes a “me” to make a “we” and a “we” to make a “Him”- visible in the earth.
How visible is He to your world?
As bright as a light in darkness? So be it. Light be in My world, all of the world I walk through everyday. Bring light into darkness Oh Lord through me and through us.
The entrance of His word brings light (into a place that was dark). So I’m a doer of His words- that I’ve learned from reading the Bible and studying in church or at home. I don’t just sit and hear it, I listen intently, to intently learn, as a student of the word, who wants change to come into my life by the word of God. I hear the word and begin to immediately apply it in my own life. I become the word and the word becomes me. It begins to shine bright enough that others see the changes being made in me by the word of God at work, having its way with me. I am now one with the word. I am the living word in demonstration. The word was allowed to live in me, put on flesh in me, so people could see its living example.
So I enter a room…….the entrance of His word brings LIGHT!
Do you honorably carry in your body the marks of the LORD Jesus?
That means I change from who I am to who He is and it is so visible that others see it without me telling them. They see the old me with my old desires and my old thinking, change and die. They want to know where that old Lena went and I can tell them she went to a spiritual grave.
If that old dead men tries to rise up as its old self, everyone around me says it stinks, can see who’s really alive in me now, and It ain’t Jesus.
Notice I capitalized “Lord”?
There are NO marks if Jesus is not Lord, and Lord does not mean Savior. He came to save the whole world, He IS the Savior of the world and only really the the Lord of those who make Him so, by placing their lives under His governorship. In the “end” He is Lord of All, those who surrender and those who do not, but some He will have known and others He will not.
It would be better to go ahead and surrender now, so it will be clear who He knows and who He does not know.
THIS IS how Isaiah 58:12 begins to unfold and manifest.
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
2 Chronicles 7:1-22 -
The Dedication of the Temple
1When Solomon finished praying, fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and the glorious presence of the LORD filled the Temple. 2The priests could not even enter the Temple of the LORD because the glorious presence of the LORD filled it. 3When all the people of Israel saw the fire coming down and the glorious presence of the LORD filling the Temple, they fell face down on the ground and worshiped and praised the LORD, saying,
"He is so good! His faithful love endures forever!"
4Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices to the LORD. 5King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. And so the king and all the people dedicated the Temple of God. 6The priests took their assigned positions, and so did the Levites who were singing, "His faithful love endures forever!" They accompanied the singing with music from the instruments King David had made for praising the LORD. On the other side of the Levites, the priests blew the trumpets, while all Israel stood.
7Solomon then dedicated the central area of the courtyard in front of the LORD's Temple so they could present burnt offerings and the fat from peace offerings there. He did this because the bronze altar he had built could not handle all the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and sacrificial fat.
8For the next seven days they celebrated the Festival of Shelters F30 with huge crowds gathered from all the tribes of Israel. They came from as far away as Lebo-hamath in the north, to the brook of Egypt in the south. 9On the eighth day they had a closing ceremony, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the Festival of Shelters for seven days. 10Then at the end of the celebration, F31 Solomon sent the people home. They were all joyful and happy because the LORD had been so good to David and Solomon and to his people Israel.
The LORD's Response to Solomon
11So Solomon finished building the Temple of the LORD, as well as the royal palace. He completed everything he had planned to do. 12Then one night the LORD appeared to Solomon and said, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this Temple as the place for making sacrifices. 13At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or I might command locusts to devour your crops, or I might send plagues among you. 14Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. 15I will listen to every prayer made in this place, 16for I have chosen this Temple and set it apart to be my home forever. My eyes and my heart will always be here.
17"As for you, if you follow me as your father, David, did and obey all my commands, laws, and regulations, 18then I will not let anyone take away your throne. This is the same promise I gave your father, David, when I said, 'You will never fail to have a successor who rules over Israel.'
19"But if you abandon me and disobey the laws and commands I have given you, and if you go and worship other gods, 20then I will uproot the people of Israel from this land of mine that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have set apart to honor my name. I will make it a spectacle of contempt among the nations. 21And though this Temple is impressive now, it will become an appalling sight to all who pass by. They will ask, 'Why has the LORD done such terrible things to his land and to his Temple?' 22And the answer will be, 'Because his people abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead. That is why he brought all these disasters upon them.'"
FOOTNOTES:F30: Hebrew the festival (also in 7:9); see note on 5:3. F31: Hebrew Then on the twenty-seventh day of the seventh month. This day of the Hebrew lunar calendar occurs in late September or early October.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
Quatro de Mayo, and the National Day of Prayer are today.
Our nation is in great need of prayer, as are any people groups who need the Lord’s blessing on them.
Do the believers in our nation see the great need for prayer?
The first step in any deliverance is to see a need, a need for help or change.
The next step would be to acknowledge that need and the need for help through one who can help, who is greater than anything you can do alone to help. It’s like recognizing that things are not possible without greater help.
That’s called humility. “I need God, and I’ve found I am not He”.
So humility is the next step towards change.
Then repentance is the next and greatest step towards restoration and repair.
Repentance means change from doing the wrong thing one recognized as wrong and move in another direction, to do what is now seen to be right-ous.
When one repents they can expect healing, wholeness, deliverance. When they change even their minds they can actually pray and expect a promise to come to pass.
Are we willing enough to see that our nation is in need of help?
Do we cry out for it’s recognition of help?
Do we humble ourselves and see if there’s any changes we personally can make to help our nation?
Do we change as an example to others towards tapping into the blessing and claiming the help we need?
Can we enter the throne boldly for our nation, because we’ve repented and are covered by the sacrificial blood of the Lamb?
If we personally are washed and step into continual cleansing power for further revealed change, we can boldly come.
If we are open to hear and do God’s word, we can come expecting.
Our nation needs help. Are we the men and women to help it?
Are we willing to do what it takes to help save it?
Can we pray?
Can we assemble with other Christian believers on a specified day and join into bold prayer?
Repentive prayer? Humble prayer? Healing prayer?
We are the people God has chosen in this day to Pray, Pray, Pray for our nation.
It’s time for us to lay down agendas and other desires, we are in dire need.
There is so much hidden we have no idea about.
We’ve got to ask God to show us, Waz-up.
Let us gather with someone, at least two, maybe three, but hopefully more than that can be in one accord and release the power of agreement with God’s word for the salvation of our nation. Today.
In our county :
Mary McLeod Bethune Cook-man Performing Arts Center on E. ISB 6:45 pm. Come early.
Our country will be so glad you did!
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
2 Chronicles 7:1-22 -
The Dedication of the Temple
1When Solomon finished praying, fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and the glorious presence of the LORD filled the Temple. 2The priests could not even enter the Temple of the LORD because the glorious presence of the LORD filled it. 3When all the people of Israel saw the fire coming down and the glorious presence of the LORD filling the Temple, they fell face down on the ground and worshiped and praised the LORD, saying,
"He is so good! His faithful love endures forever!"
4Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices to the LORD. 5King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. And so the king and all the people dedicated the Temple of God. 6The priests took their assigned positions, and so did the Levites who were singing, "His faithful love endures forever!" They accompanied the singing with music from the instruments King David had made for praising the LORD. On the other side of the Levites, the priests blew the trumpets, while all Israel stood.
7Solomon then dedicated the central area of the courtyard in front of the LORD's Temple so they could present burnt offerings and the fat from peace offerings there. He did this because the bronze altar he had built could not handle all the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and sacrificial fat.
8For the next seven days they celebrated the Festival of Shelters F30 with huge crowds gathered from all the tribes of Israel. They came from as far away as Lebo-hamath in the north, to the brook of Egypt in the south. 9On the eighth day they had a closing ceremony, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the Festival of Shelters for seven days. 10Then at the end of the celebration, F31 Solomon sent the people home. They were all joyful and happy because the LORD had been so good to David and Solomon and to his people Israel.
The LORD's Response to Solomon
11So Solomon finished building the Temple of the LORD, as well as the royal palace. He completed everything he had planned to do. 12Then one night the LORD appeared to Solomon and said, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this Temple as the place for making sacrifices. 13At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or I might command locusts to devour your crops, or I might send plagues among you. 14Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. 15I will listen to every prayer made in this place, 16for I have chosen this Temple and set it apart to be my home forever. My eyes and my heart will always be here.
17"As for you, if you follow me as your father, David, did and obey all my commands, laws, and regulations, 18then I will not let anyone take away your throne. This is the same promise I gave your father, David, when I said, 'You will never fail to have a successor who rules over Israel.'
19"But if you abandon me and disobey the laws and commands I have given you, and if you go and worship other gods, 20then I will uproot the people of Israel from this land of mine that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have set apart to honor my name. I will make it a spectacle of contempt among the nations. 21And though this Temple is impressive now, it will become an appalling sight to all who pass by. They will ask, 'Why has the LORD done such terrible things to his land and to his Temple?' 22And the answer will be, 'Because his people abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead. That is why he brought all these disasters upon them.'"
FOOTNOTES:F30: Hebrew the festival (also in 7:9); see note on 5:3. F31: Hebrew Then on the twenty-seventh day of the seventh month. This day of the Hebrew lunar calendar occurs in late September or early October.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
Quatro de Mayo, and the National Day of Prayer are today.
Our nation is in great need of prayer, as are any people groups who need the Lord’s blessing on them.
Do the believers in our nation see the great need for prayer?
The first step in any deliverance is to see a need, a need for help or change.
The next step would be to acknowledge that need and the need for help through one who can help, who is greater than anything you can do alone to help. It’s like recognizing that things are not possible without greater help.
That’s called humility. “I need God, and I’ve found I am not He”.
So humility is the next step towards change.
Then repentance is the next and greatest step towards restoration and repair.
Repentance means change from doing the wrong thing one recognized as wrong and move in another direction, to do what is now seen to be right-ous.
When one repents they can expect healing, wholeness, deliverance. When they change even their minds they can actually pray and expect a promise to come to pass.
Are we willing enough to see that our nation is in need of help?
Do we cry out for it’s recognition of help?
Do we humble ourselves and see if there’s any changes we personally can make to help our nation?
Do we change as an example to others towards tapping into the blessing and claiming the help we need?
Can we enter the throne boldly for our nation, because we’ve repented and are covered by the sacrificial blood of the Lamb?
If we personally are washed and step into continual cleansing power for further revealed change, we can boldly come.
If we are open to hear and do God’s word, we can come expecting.
Our nation needs help. Are we the men and women to help it?
Are we willing to do what it takes to help save it?
Can we pray?
Can we assemble with other Christian believers on a specified day and join into bold prayer?
Repentive prayer? Humble prayer? Healing prayer?
We are the people God has chosen in this day to Pray, Pray, Pray for our nation.
It’s time for us to lay down agendas and other desires, we are in dire need.
There is so much hidden we have no idea about.
We’ve got to ask God to show us, Waz-up.
Let us gather with someone, at least two, maybe three, but hopefully more than that can be in one accord and release the power of agreement with God’s word for the salvation of our nation. Today.
In our county :
Mary McLeod Bethune Cook-man Performing Arts Center on E. ISB 6:45 pm. Come early.
Our country will be so glad you did!
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Today's Daily Bread (DB) 28 w/ Lena's Journalin'
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Deuteronomy 28:1-68
Blessings for Obedience
1"If you fully obey the LORD your God by keeping all the commands I am giving you today, the LORD your God will exalt you above all the nations of the world. 2You will experience all these blessings if you obey the LORD your God:
3 You will be blessed in your towns and in the country.
4 You will be blessed with many children and productive fields. You will be blessed with fertile herds and flocks.
5 You will be blessed with baskets overflowing with fruit, and with kneading bowls filled with bread.
6 You will be blessed wherever you go, both in coming and in going.
7"The LORD will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven!
8"The LORD will bless everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
9"If you obey the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways, the LORD will establish you as his holy people as he solemnly promised to do. 10Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you.
11"The LORD will give you an abundance of good things in the land he swore to give your ancestors—many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops. 12The LORD will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens to bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. 13If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God and carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always have the upper hand. 14You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today to follow after other gods and worship them.
Curses for Disobedience
15"But if you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and do not obey all the commands and laws I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you:
16 You will be cursed in your towns and in the country.
17 You will be cursed with baskets empty of fruit, and with kneading bowls empty of bread.
18 You will be cursed with few children and barren fields. You will be cursed with infertile herds and flocks.
19 You will be cursed wherever you go, both in coming and in going.
20"The LORD himself will send against you curses, confusion, and disillusionment in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and forsaking me. 21The LORD will send diseases among you until none of you are left in the land you are about to enter and occupy. 22The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew. These devastations will pursue you until you die. 23The skies above will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as iron. 24The LORD will turn your rain into sand and dust, and it will pour down from the sky until you are destroyed.
25"The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You will attack your enemies from one direction, but you will scatter from them in seven! You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26Your dead bodies will be food for the birds and wild animals, and no one will be there to chase them away.
27"The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, scurvy, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic. 29You will grope around in broad daylight, just like a blind person groping in the darkness, and you will not succeed at anything you do. You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will come to save you.
30"You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will ravish her. You will build a house, but someone else will live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will never enjoy its fruit. 31Your ox will be butchered before your eyes, but you won't get a single bite of the meat. Your donkey will be driven away, never to be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will be there to help you. 32You will watch as your sons and daughters are taken away as slaves. Your heart will break as you long for them, but nothing you do will help. 33A foreign nation you have never heard about will eat the crops you worked so hard to grow. You will suffer under constant oppression and harsh treatment. 34You will go mad because of all the tragedy around you. 35The LORD will cover you from head to foot with incurable boils.
36"The LORD will exile you and the king you crowned to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors. Then in exile you will worship gods of wood and stone! 37You will become an object of horror, a proverb and a mockery among all the nations to which the LORD sends you.
38"You will plant much but harvest little, for locusts will eat your crops. 39You will plant vineyards and care for them, but you will not drink the wine or eat the grapes, for worms will destroy the vines. 40You will grow olive trees throughout your land, but you will never use the olive oil, for the trees will drop the fruit before it is ripe. 41You will have sons and daughters, but you will not keep them, for they will be led away into captivity. 42Swarms of insects will destroy your trees and crops. 43The foreigners living among you will become stronger and stronger, while you become weaker and weaker. 44They will lend money to you, not you to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail!
45"If you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and to obey the commands and laws he has given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed. 46These horrors will serve as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever. 47Because you have not served the LORD your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received, 48you will serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you. You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything. They will oppress you harshly until you are destroyed.
49"The LORD will bring a distant nation against you from the end of the earth, and it will swoop down on you like an eagle. It is a nation whose language you do not understand, 50a fierce and heartless nation that shows no respect for the old and no pity for the young. 51Its armies will devour your livestock and crops, and you will starve to death. They will leave you no grain, new wine, olive oil, calves, or lambs, bringing about your destruction. 52They will lay siege to your cities until all the fortified walls in your land—the walls you trusted to protect you—are knocked down. They will attack all the towns in the land the LORD your God has given you. 53The siege will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you. 54The most tenderhearted man among you will have no compassion for his own brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving children. 55He will refuse to give them a share of the flesh he is devouring—the flesh of one of his own children—because he has nothing else to eat during the siege that your enemy will inflict on all your towns. 56The most tender and delicate woman among you—so delicate she would not so much as touch her feet to the ground—will be cruel to the husband she loves and to her own son or daughter. 57She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.
58"If you refuse to obey all the terms of this law that are written in this book, and if you do not fear the glorious and awesome name of the LORD your God, 59then the LORD will overwhelm both you and your children with indescribable plagues. These plagues will be intense and without relief, making you miserable and unbearably sick. 60He will bring against you all the diseases of Egypt that you feared so much, and they will claim you. 61The LORD will bring against you every sickness and plague there is, even those not mentioned in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. 62Though you are as numerous as the stars in the sky, few of you will be left because you would not listen to the LORD your God.
63"Just as the LORD has found great pleasure in helping you to prosper and multiply, the LORD will find pleasure in destroying you, until you disappear from the land you are about to enter and occupy. 64For the LORD will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship foreign gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods made of wood and stone! 65There among those nations you will find no place of security and rest. And the LORD will cause your heart to tremble, your eyesight to fail, and your soul to despair. 66Your lives will hang in doubt. You will live night and day in fear, with no reason to believe that you will see the morning light. 67In the morning you will say, 'If only it were night!' And in the evening you will say, 'If only it were morning!' You will say this because of your terror at the awesome horrors you see around you. 68Then the LORD will send you back to Egypt in ships, a journey I promised you would never again make. There you will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will want to buy you."
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
The King James Version of these verses say, IF you listen to these commands and carefully obey them then blessings will come on you, if you refuse to listen curses come and overwhelm you.
Ever feel overwhelmed?
Ever blame the Lord for the overwhelming feeling, thinking if God loved you this would not be happening?
Blessings and love are not the same, neither are cursing and non-love the same.
This is a truth to get a hold of. Otherwise we’ll be led away from the Lord and be believing the lies of the enemy of God and those against His word at work in us.
Obedience is a response of one who is loved and loves back.
To bless the Lord means to speak highly of, to exalt as on High, to bow one’s self to Him in submission, meaning we bow our head to His. Give our ideas over to the truths of Hid words, lifting the word of God as higher than our own opinions and bringing our opinions into subjection to being changed by His word.
The word of God is based on sowing and reaping, giving and receiving. Give blessing, receive blessing, give disobedience- receive its repercussions. These curses are repercussions of the reaping of disobediences. Blessings are the reaping of the reciprocation of the fruit of love.
Being blessed and cursed is not based on how much God loves us or not, it is based on what we sow into our love relationship with the one who loves us or do not sow into it. If we sow into our love relations in response and responsibility to that love we are so blessed. If we sow more into the world, we gain the world, which is not blessing.
Our Father loves us. All of us no matter what we do, have done, or ever will do. He loves us as no other ever could. He was the King of All kings reigning beside His father God in heaven where all was perfect. Then because of His strong love for the Father, he willingly chose to come down to earth and put on a mere earth suit to live for men that His Father loved so they could see His example and then to show and prove to men how great His Father’s love for them is, great enough to take on all of the penalty of sin and live again praying that they’ll love God and love people. He gave us the power that He died for so that we would also be able to give that same love in demonstration to others while we walk this earth. That is forever possible through the power of the Holy Spirit.
That was/is love. God does love us, no matter what happens to us. No matter what we decide, BUT are we living inside of His blessings? That stems on the sowing and reaping principle. What we sow we shall also reap.
“IF” is a very big two letter word. Huge two letter word. It is contingent. It is conditional.
Many confuse that with the love of God, saying the love of God is unconditional. It is true that God’s love is unconditional, He loved us, loves us , died for us, prays for us no matter what we ever choose, no matter what.
His blessings on the other hand are more like things “earned”. They are conditions set out to show us where to walk that will be a righteous path of blessing after we receive His love.
His word shows us how to live in love with Him, what love does, where love goes etc. It is the guide and the instruction for living the holy life of responsive love unto God. We don’t have to, but we can IF we love Him.
If we don’t follow natural directions to Grandma’s house, we won’t make it there, but Grandma still loves us! The promise is getting to the house, the instructions are the way or the instruction, IF we follow them we’ll see guideposts along the way and we’ll be and feel rewarded when we get there. The “gift” is getting there, it is the reward for following the instruction.
Such joy is given our Father by those who love Him back enough to obey Him. He’ll love no matter what or how we act or if we even reject Him He still loves us, but what Joy He gets from us when we love Him back in daily demonstration.
Choose life today, for you, and for your seed to live eternally……..
Love U !!!!
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Deuteronomy 28:1-68
Blessings for Obedience
1"If you fully obey the LORD your God by keeping all the commands I am giving you today, the LORD your God will exalt you above all the nations of the world. 2You will experience all these blessings if you obey the LORD your God:
3 You will be blessed in your towns and in the country.
4 You will be blessed with many children and productive fields. You will be blessed with fertile herds and flocks.
5 You will be blessed with baskets overflowing with fruit, and with kneading bowls filled with bread.
6 You will be blessed wherever you go, both in coming and in going.
7"The LORD will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven!
8"The LORD will bless everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
9"If you obey the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways, the LORD will establish you as his holy people as he solemnly promised to do. 10Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you.
11"The LORD will give you an abundance of good things in the land he swore to give your ancestors—many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops. 12The LORD will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens to bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. 13If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God and carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always have the upper hand. 14You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today to follow after other gods and worship them.
Curses for Disobedience
15"But if you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and do not obey all the commands and laws I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you:
16 You will be cursed in your towns and in the country.
17 You will be cursed with baskets empty of fruit, and with kneading bowls empty of bread.
18 You will be cursed with few children and barren fields. You will be cursed with infertile herds and flocks.
19 You will be cursed wherever you go, both in coming and in going.
20"The LORD himself will send against you curses, confusion, and disillusionment in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and forsaking me. 21The LORD will send diseases among you until none of you are left in the land you are about to enter and occupy. 22The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew. These devastations will pursue you until you die. 23The skies above will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as iron. 24The LORD will turn your rain into sand and dust, and it will pour down from the sky until you are destroyed.
25"The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You will attack your enemies from one direction, but you will scatter from them in seven! You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26Your dead bodies will be food for the birds and wild animals, and no one will be there to chase them away.
27"The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, scurvy, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic. 29You will grope around in broad daylight, just like a blind person groping in the darkness, and you will not succeed at anything you do. You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will come to save you.
30"You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will ravish her. You will build a house, but someone else will live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will never enjoy its fruit. 31Your ox will be butchered before your eyes, but you won't get a single bite of the meat. Your donkey will be driven away, never to be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will be there to help you. 32You will watch as your sons and daughters are taken away as slaves. Your heart will break as you long for them, but nothing you do will help. 33A foreign nation you have never heard about will eat the crops you worked so hard to grow. You will suffer under constant oppression and harsh treatment. 34You will go mad because of all the tragedy around you. 35The LORD will cover you from head to foot with incurable boils.
36"The LORD will exile you and the king you crowned to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors. Then in exile you will worship gods of wood and stone! 37You will become an object of horror, a proverb and a mockery among all the nations to which the LORD sends you.
38"You will plant much but harvest little, for locusts will eat your crops. 39You will plant vineyards and care for them, but you will not drink the wine or eat the grapes, for worms will destroy the vines. 40You will grow olive trees throughout your land, but you will never use the olive oil, for the trees will drop the fruit before it is ripe. 41You will have sons and daughters, but you will not keep them, for they will be led away into captivity. 42Swarms of insects will destroy your trees and crops. 43The foreigners living among you will become stronger and stronger, while you become weaker and weaker. 44They will lend money to you, not you to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail!
45"If you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and to obey the commands and laws he has given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed. 46These horrors will serve as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever. 47Because you have not served the LORD your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received, 48you will serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you. You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything. They will oppress you harshly until you are destroyed.
49"The LORD will bring a distant nation against you from the end of the earth, and it will swoop down on you like an eagle. It is a nation whose language you do not understand, 50a fierce and heartless nation that shows no respect for the old and no pity for the young. 51Its armies will devour your livestock and crops, and you will starve to death. They will leave you no grain, new wine, olive oil, calves, or lambs, bringing about your destruction. 52They will lay siege to your cities until all the fortified walls in your land—the walls you trusted to protect you—are knocked down. They will attack all the towns in the land the LORD your God has given you. 53The siege will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you. 54The most tenderhearted man among you will have no compassion for his own brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving children. 55He will refuse to give them a share of the flesh he is devouring—the flesh of one of his own children—because he has nothing else to eat during the siege that your enemy will inflict on all your towns. 56The most tender and delicate woman among you—so delicate she would not so much as touch her feet to the ground—will be cruel to the husband she loves and to her own son or daughter. 57She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.
58"If you refuse to obey all the terms of this law that are written in this book, and if you do not fear the glorious and awesome name of the LORD your God, 59then the LORD will overwhelm both you and your children with indescribable plagues. These plagues will be intense and without relief, making you miserable and unbearably sick. 60He will bring against you all the diseases of Egypt that you feared so much, and they will claim you. 61The LORD will bring against you every sickness and plague there is, even those not mentioned in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. 62Though you are as numerous as the stars in the sky, few of you will be left because you would not listen to the LORD your God.
63"Just as the LORD has found great pleasure in helping you to prosper and multiply, the LORD will find pleasure in destroying you, until you disappear from the land you are about to enter and occupy. 64For the LORD will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship foreign gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods made of wood and stone! 65There among those nations you will find no place of security and rest. And the LORD will cause your heart to tremble, your eyesight to fail, and your soul to despair. 66Your lives will hang in doubt. You will live night and day in fear, with no reason to believe that you will see the morning light. 67In the morning you will say, 'If only it were night!' And in the evening you will say, 'If only it were morning!' You will say this because of your terror at the awesome horrors you see around you. 68Then the LORD will send you back to Egypt in ships, a journey I promised you would never again make. There you will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will want to buy you."
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
The King James Version of these verses say, IF you listen to these commands and carefully obey them then blessings will come on you, if you refuse to listen curses come and overwhelm you.
Ever feel overwhelmed?
Ever blame the Lord for the overwhelming feeling, thinking if God loved you this would not be happening?
Blessings and love are not the same, neither are cursing and non-love the same.
This is a truth to get a hold of. Otherwise we’ll be led away from the Lord and be believing the lies of the enemy of God and those against His word at work in us.
Obedience is a response of one who is loved and loves back.
To bless the Lord means to speak highly of, to exalt as on High, to bow one’s self to Him in submission, meaning we bow our head to His. Give our ideas over to the truths of Hid words, lifting the word of God as higher than our own opinions and bringing our opinions into subjection to being changed by His word.
The word of God is based on sowing and reaping, giving and receiving. Give blessing, receive blessing, give disobedience- receive its repercussions. These curses are repercussions of the reaping of disobediences. Blessings are the reaping of the reciprocation of the fruit of love.
Being blessed and cursed is not based on how much God loves us or not, it is based on what we sow into our love relationship with the one who loves us or do not sow into it. If we sow into our love relations in response and responsibility to that love we are so blessed. If we sow more into the world, we gain the world, which is not blessing.
Our Father loves us. All of us no matter what we do, have done, or ever will do. He loves us as no other ever could. He was the King of All kings reigning beside His father God in heaven where all was perfect. Then because of His strong love for the Father, he willingly chose to come down to earth and put on a mere earth suit to live for men that His Father loved so they could see His example and then to show and prove to men how great His Father’s love for them is, great enough to take on all of the penalty of sin and live again praying that they’ll love God and love people. He gave us the power that He died for so that we would also be able to give that same love in demonstration to others while we walk this earth. That is forever possible through the power of the Holy Spirit.
That was/is love. God does love us, no matter what happens to us. No matter what we decide, BUT are we living inside of His blessings? That stems on the sowing and reaping principle. What we sow we shall also reap.
“IF” is a very big two letter word. Huge two letter word. It is contingent. It is conditional.
Many confuse that with the love of God, saying the love of God is unconditional. It is true that God’s love is unconditional, He loved us, loves us , died for us, prays for us no matter what we ever choose, no matter what.
His blessings on the other hand are more like things “earned”. They are conditions set out to show us where to walk that will be a righteous path of blessing after we receive His love.
His word shows us how to live in love with Him, what love does, where love goes etc. It is the guide and the instruction for living the holy life of responsive love unto God. We don’t have to, but we can IF we love Him.
If we don’t follow natural directions to Grandma’s house, we won’t make it there, but Grandma still loves us! The promise is getting to the house, the instructions are the way or the instruction, IF we follow them we’ll see guideposts along the way and we’ll be and feel rewarded when we get there. The “gift” is getting there, it is the reward for following the instruction.
Such joy is given our Father by those who love Him back enough to obey Him. He’ll love no matter what or how we act or if we even reject Him He still loves us, but what Joy He gets from us when we love Him back in daily demonstration.
Choose life today, for you, and for your seed to live eternally……..
Love U !!!!
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Matthew 13 TODAY
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANCE Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena's Journalin' , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Matthew 13:1-58 -
A Harvest Story
1At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. 2In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. 3Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories."What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. 4As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. 5Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn't put down roots, 6so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. 7Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. 8Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.
9"Are you listening to this? Really listening?"
Why Tell Stories?
10The disciples came up and asked, "Why do you tell stories?"
11He replied, "You've been given insight into God's kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn't been given to them. 12Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. 13That's why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they're blue in the face and not get it. 14I don't want Isaiah's forecast repeated all over again:
Your ears are open but you don't hear a thing. Your eyes are awake but you don't see a thing. 15The people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won't have to listen; They screw their eyes shutso they won't have to look, so they won't have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them.
16"But you have God-blessed eyes--eyes that see! And God-blessed ears--ears that hear! 17A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.
The Meaning of the Harvest Story
18"Study this story of the farmer planting seed. 19When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn't take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person's heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.
20"The seed cast in the gravel--this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. 21But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
22"The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.
23"The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams."
24He told another story. "God's kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. 25That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. 26When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.
27"The farmhands came to the farmer and said, "Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn't it? Where did these thistles come from?'
28"He answered, "Some enemy did this.'"The farmhands asked, "Should we weed out the thistles?'
29"He said, "No, if you weed the thistles, you'll pull up the wheat, too. 30Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I'll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.'"
31Another story. "God's kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants. 32It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles build nests in it."
33Another story. "God's kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread--and waits while the dough rises."
34All Jesus did that day was tell stories--a long storytelling afternoon. 35His storytelling fulfilled the prophecy:
I will open my mouth and tell stories; I will bring out into the open things hidden since the world's first day.
The Curtain of History
36Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, "Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field."
37So he explained. "The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil, 39and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels.
40"The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. 41The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, 42pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. 43At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father."Are you listening to this? Really listening?
44"God's kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidently found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic--what a find!-and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field.
45"Or, God's kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. 46Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it.
47"Or, God's kingdom is like a fishnet cast into the sea, catching all kinds of fish. 48When it is full, it is hauled onto the beach. The good fish are picked out and put in a tub; those unfit to eat are thrown away. 49That's how it will be when the curtain comes down on history. The angels will come and cull the bad fish 50and throw them in the garbage. There will be a lot of desperate complaining, but it won't do any good."
51Jesus asked, "Are you starting to get a handle on all this?"They answered, "Yes."
52He said, "Then you see how every student well-trained in God's kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it."
53When Jesus finished telling these stories, he left there, 54returned to his hometown, and gave a lecture in the meetinghouse. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. "We had no idea he was this good!" they said. "How did he get so wise, get such ability?" 55But in the next breath they were cutting him down: "We've known him since he was a kid; he's the carpenter's son. We know his mother, Mary. We know his brothers James and Joseph, Simon and Judas. 56All his sisters live here. Who does he think he is?" 57They got their noses all out of joint.
58But Jesus said, "A prophet is taken for granted in his hometown and his family." He didn't do many miracles there because of their hostile indifference.
Copyright Statement: THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary LanguageThis edition issued by contractual arrangement with NavPress, a division of The Navigators, U.S.A.Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language Copyright © 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
What can I say about vs 1-16, it is so clear in this Message version. Those who desire to hear will listen to God and His words, those who don’t, won’t listen. Insight is given more and more and more to those who want to know by hearing more. How much of God do we want to get to know, He’s available to all who will come. We can have as much of Him as we’d ever desire. Ya’ll come now ya hear?
The seed is God’s word, whenever we hear it spoken or shared with us, or we read it- like right now. It either becomes useful to us, and brings change into our lives, or it doesn’t.
Why? What makes the difference? Well Jesus went through a whole list of “whys” here, so how can we affect that outcome? Can we? Absolutely, we can, which is why He shares with us that there is a potential of the word being taken away from us with these things. How would we stop the things from happening? Things happen and we may be able to stop some of them, but the biggest feat is to stop their long term affects on us. A person can call you a name and it affect you, or not affect you. What does that depend on? Your strength as a person to disregard untruths and see them as such. So how do I keep God’s word and allow it to stay in my long enough to have its perfect work?
Chew, chew, chew. Not a train, not a sneeze, eat it and chew it up, all day long until it becomes a part of you just like your natural food does. Most of us went to school as youngsters and we had to study for educational purposes and we were tested, we’d study and memorize material for the tests so we’d pass and not forget. This is the same with God’s word if we want to know it, we’ve got to study it.
What if you knew you might be stolen from if you leave your car unlocked in a certain neighborhood? You simply lock your car, you also may take things of value out of it in order to keep them in a safer place in case of a break in, right? You guard what is valuable, to keep enemies away.
We’ve got to do the same things with the words God gives us to tend and keep. They are seeds for a garden of harvest in us. If our lives depended on the fruit of that garden, would we not tend it, daily? OUR LIFE does depend on it, and so do others lives depend on us tending our garden of harvest of the word of God in us.
God has given us so many ways to be planted in, cultivate more soil, water, fertilize, etc. Our local churches are vats full of seeds, our daily devotional times get the seeds to root, extra services per week, deepen our understanding, whether at church or in home groups, the more the merrier for tending and keeping. When we gather together with other believers it’s like putting a guard order around our gardens, we work together to tend and keep and the garden flourishes. It needs to become a priority, it is one with God. He wants us guarded and kept unto Himself and His work. He’s made a huge “investment” in us and is looking for the return of His Son to collect on all they’ve been able to have kept for them in reserve.
Hearing the word of God is not enough, doing the word of God will bring us to a place where we become the word of God for this world, The Living Word!
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena's Journalin' , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Matthew 13:1-58 -
A Harvest Story
1At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. 2In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. 3Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories."What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. 4As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. 5Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn't put down roots, 6so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. 7Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. 8Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.
9"Are you listening to this? Really listening?"
Why Tell Stories?
10The disciples came up and asked, "Why do you tell stories?"
11He replied, "You've been given insight into God's kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn't been given to them. 12Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. 13That's why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they're blue in the face and not get it. 14I don't want Isaiah's forecast repeated all over again:
Your ears are open but you don't hear a thing. Your eyes are awake but you don't see a thing. 15The people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won't have to listen; They screw their eyes shutso they won't have to look, so they won't have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them.
16"But you have God-blessed eyes--eyes that see! And God-blessed ears--ears that hear! 17A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.
The Meaning of the Harvest Story
18"Study this story of the farmer planting seed. 19When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn't take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person's heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.
20"The seed cast in the gravel--this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. 21But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
22"The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.
23"The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams."
24He told another story. "God's kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. 25That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. 26When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.
27"The farmhands came to the farmer and said, "Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn't it? Where did these thistles come from?'
28"He answered, "Some enemy did this.'"The farmhands asked, "Should we weed out the thistles?'
29"He said, "No, if you weed the thistles, you'll pull up the wheat, too. 30Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I'll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.'"
31Another story. "God's kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants. 32It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles build nests in it."
33Another story. "God's kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread--and waits while the dough rises."
34All Jesus did that day was tell stories--a long storytelling afternoon. 35His storytelling fulfilled the prophecy:
I will open my mouth and tell stories; I will bring out into the open things hidden since the world's first day.
The Curtain of History
36Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, "Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field."
37So he explained. "The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil, 39and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels.
40"The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. 41The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, 42pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. 43At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father."Are you listening to this? Really listening?
44"God's kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidently found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic--what a find!-and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field.
45"Or, God's kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. 46Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it.
47"Or, God's kingdom is like a fishnet cast into the sea, catching all kinds of fish. 48When it is full, it is hauled onto the beach. The good fish are picked out and put in a tub; those unfit to eat are thrown away. 49That's how it will be when the curtain comes down on history. The angels will come and cull the bad fish 50and throw them in the garbage. There will be a lot of desperate complaining, but it won't do any good."
51Jesus asked, "Are you starting to get a handle on all this?"They answered, "Yes."
52He said, "Then you see how every student well-trained in God's kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it."
53When Jesus finished telling these stories, he left there, 54returned to his hometown, and gave a lecture in the meetinghouse. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. "We had no idea he was this good!" they said. "How did he get so wise, get such ability?" 55But in the next breath they were cutting him down: "We've known him since he was a kid; he's the carpenter's son. We know his mother, Mary. We know his brothers James and Joseph, Simon and Judas. 56All his sisters live here. Who does he think he is?" 57They got their noses all out of joint.
58But Jesus said, "A prophet is taken for granted in his hometown and his family." He didn't do many miracles there because of their hostile indifference.
Copyright Statement: THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary LanguageThis edition issued by contractual arrangement with NavPress, a division of The Navigators, U.S.A.Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language Copyright © 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
What can I say about vs 1-16, it is so clear in this Message version. Those who desire to hear will listen to God and His words, those who don’t, won’t listen. Insight is given more and more and more to those who want to know by hearing more. How much of God do we want to get to know, He’s available to all who will come. We can have as much of Him as we’d ever desire. Ya’ll come now ya hear?
The seed is God’s word, whenever we hear it spoken or shared with us, or we read it- like right now. It either becomes useful to us, and brings change into our lives, or it doesn’t.
Why? What makes the difference? Well Jesus went through a whole list of “whys” here, so how can we affect that outcome? Can we? Absolutely, we can, which is why He shares with us that there is a potential of the word being taken away from us with these things. How would we stop the things from happening? Things happen and we may be able to stop some of them, but the biggest feat is to stop their long term affects on us. A person can call you a name and it affect you, or not affect you. What does that depend on? Your strength as a person to disregard untruths and see them as such. So how do I keep God’s word and allow it to stay in my long enough to have its perfect work?
Chew, chew, chew. Not a train, not a sneeze, eat it and chew it up, all day long until it becomes a part of you just like your natural food does. Most of us went to school as youngsters and we had to study for educational purposes and we were tested, we’d study and memorize material for the tests so we’d pass and not forget. This is the same with God’s word if we want to know it, we’ve got to study it.
What if you knew you might be stolen from if you leave your car unlocked in a certain neighborhood? You simply lock your car, you also may take things of value out of it in order to keep them in a safer place in case of a break in, right? You guard what is valuable, to keep enemies away.
We’ve got to do the same things with the words God gives us to tend and keep. They are seeds for a garden of harvest in us. If our lives depended on the fruit of that garden, would we not tend it, daily? OUR LIFE does depend on it, and so do others lives depend on us tending our garden of harvest of the word of God in us.
God has given us so many ways to be planted in, cultivate more soil, water, fertilize, etc. Our local churches are vats full of seeds, our daily devotional times get the seeds to root, extra services per week, deepen our understanding, whether at church or in home groups, the more the merrier for tending and keeping. When we gather together with other believers it’s like putting a guard order around our gardens, we work together to tend and keep and the garden flourishes. It needs to become a priority, it is one with God. He wants us guarded and kept unto Himself and His work. He’s made a huge “investment” in us and is looking for the return of His Son to collect on all they’ve been able to have kept for them in reserve.
Hearing the word of God is not enough, doing the word of God will bring us to a place where we become the word of God for this world, The Living Word!
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Luke 12 Today
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Luke 12:1-59
A Warning against Hypocrisy
1Meanwhile, the crowds grew until thousands were milling about and crushing each other. Jesus turned first to his disciples and warned them, "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees—beware of their hypocrisy. 2The time is coming when everything will be revealed; all that is secret will be made public. 3Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!
4"Dear friends, don't be afraid of those who want to kill you. They can only kill the body; they cannot do any more to you. 5But I'll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill people and then throw them into hell.
6"What is the price of five sparrows? A couple of pennies? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. 7And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows.
8"And I assure you of this: If anyone acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I, the Son of Man, will openly acknowledge that person in the presence of God's angels. 9But if anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that person before God's angels. 10Yet those who speak against the Son of Man may be forgiven, but anyone who speaks blasphemies against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven.
11"And when you are brought to trial in the synagogues and before rulers and authorities, don't worry about what to say in your defense, 12for the Holy Spirit will teach you what needs to be said even as you are standing there."
Story of the Rich Fool
13Then someone called from the crowd, "Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father's estate with me."
14Jesus replied, "Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?" 15Then he said, "Beware! Don't be greedy for what you don't have. Real life is not measured by how much we own."
16And he gave an illustration: "A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. 17In fact, his barns were full to overflowing. 18So he said, 'I know! I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I'll have room enough to store everything. 19And I'll sit back and say to myself, My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!'
20"But God said to him, 'You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get it all?'
21"Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God."
Teaching about Money and Possessions
22Then turning to his disciples, Jesus said, "So I tell you, don't worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food to eat or clothes to wear. 23For life consists of far more than food and clothing. 24Look at the ravens. They don't need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because God feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than any birds! 25Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not! 26And if worry can't do little things like that, what's the use of worrying over bigger things?
27"Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 28And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't he more surely care for you? You have so little faith! 29And don't worry about food—what to eat and drink. Don't worry whether God will provide it for you. 30These things dominate the thoughts of most people, but your Father already knows your needs. 31He will give you all you need from day to day if you make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.
32"So don't be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.
33"Sell what you have and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven have no holes in them. Your treasure will be safe—no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. 34Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.
Be Ready for the Lord's Coming
35"Be dressed for service and well prepared, 36as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast. Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks. 37There will be special favor for those who are ready and waiting for his return. I tell you, he himself will seat them, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat! 38He may come in the middle of the night or just before dawn. F61 But whenever he comes, there will be special favor for his servants who are ready!
39"Know this: A homeowner who knew exactly when a burglar was coming would not permit the house to be broken into. 40You must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected."
41Peter asked, "Lord, is this illustration just for us or for everyone?"
42And the Lord replied, "I'm talking to any faithful, sensible servant to whom the master gives the responsibility of managing his household and feeding his family. 43If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. 44I assure you, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. 45But if the servant thinks, 'My master won't be back for a while,' and begins oppressing the other servants, partying, and getting drunk—46well, the master will return unannounced and unexpected. He will tear the servant apart and banish him with the unfaithful. 47The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it.
48"But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given.
Jesus Causes Division
49"I have come to bring fire to the earth, and I wish that my task were already completed! 50There is a terrible baptism ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. 51Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to bring strife and division! 52From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or the other way around. 53There will be a division between father and son, mother and daughter, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law."
54Then Jesus turned to the crowd and said, "When you see clouds beginning to form in the west, you say, 'Here comes a shower.' And you are right. 55When the south wind blows, you say, 'Today will be a scorcher.' And it is. 56You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but you can't interpret these present times.
57"Why can't you decide for yourselves what is right? 58If you are on the way to court and you meet your accuser, try to settle the matter before it reaches the judge, or you may be sentenced and handed over to an officer and thrown in jail. 59And if that happens, you won't be free again until you have paid the last penny."
FOOTNOTES:F61: Greek in the second or third watch.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
Why would we fear what men can do to us here, naturally speaking, when God, who is eternal and is the judge of all life, who’s judgments cannot be repented of, is who we will eternally stand before and give our life’s accounts to?
What He’s said is true, which is why it is important to believe, trust in and rely on His word as truth and change into its conformity.
If God’s word does not change and it says something like, “those who fornicate will have no part in My kingdom”, yet society or culture or bad experiences tell us to ignore His word and fornicate, we will find ourselves facing an unrelenting word of God in our eternal end, no matter how we got into eternity, the fact will be we will find ourselves there standing before a righteous judge. His righteousness won’t say, “Oh, no big deal, it was ok according to your culture, I understood your experiences have prevented you from coming to Me”….
No, His word, which is eternal, will come up and we will be asked if we obeyed it because of the love of God in our hearts that led us into truth. The judgment will not be based on earthly excuse, not a one will stand. We will give account for how much of the word of God was available to us to know.
United States- American’s have no excuse at all. Even if a person never verbally told us truth, it has been made available for the taking, whosoever will take it, can have as much as they can stand to have. There will also be another matter given account to, “Do you know My Son and did you help anyone else to come to know and love Him?” What did our lives, given to us by God, say about Jesus?
That should cause us to fear enough to quake inside, outside and all around! Fear man and what he can do? What has man done? He’s been used by an enemy power, a spirit of darkness, to place a cloak over men’s eyes and lie to others about what there is to fear. He’s been deceived. This life here is temporary, leading to another, eternal life with or without a Father- THE Father. This life is about finding that Father and helping others find Him and His great love. That’s all this life is about, really.
Do you see how far off track we’ve gotten? If that’s all it’s about, have some of us gotten on the wrong boat? So what do we do now? Ask for a lifesaver and get off the wrong boat, cry out to get on the right boat and do all you can to get the understanding it takes, not only to merely understand, but to get others off the wrong boat and onto the right one. That boat you were on is eternally sinking! The people are dying and they don’t even know why they lived.
All the while, those on the wrong boat, who missed the right boat, are wondering how their hair or outfits look and who has the biggest diamonds, or best looking mates and children, who’s got the best job and some just sit and play games or watch TV shows of idealistic reality, which is not a reality at all, the right boat just passed by and they didn’t see, hear or know it was there, neither did they care and no one was sounding an alarm in their ears. Those who thought to change boats were just so glad they’d decided to change boats, once they found out theirs was sinking, but that was because they themselves were glad they’d personally be saved. They didn’t think about saving others, the right boat might be weighted down too much if we saved them all. If we saved them all couldn’t we make the wrong boat a right boat, and repair it too?
Some refuse to change boats because they have too much invested in the wrong boat, they’d lose out on natural income. Then they didn’t want to leave the cargo behind, all the while the cargo is going down with the sinking ship and if they stay, they’ll go down with their stuff also! Dear God, don’t you know the ship is sinking? Don’t you know that your stuff is gonna be on the bottom of the ocean? Don’t you realize that if we don’t tell people they’ll be at the bottom too, drowned? Not only will they drown, but they’ll burn. Is it worth arguing with them over religion and semantics or is it worth being love so they’ll come? Do we need to change them before they get on the saver boat, make sure they look better and don’t say bad words first?
I’ve met a lot of church people who get mad when they are around unsaved people who don’t look like God….I usually try to help them get over that, a person who is in the world and about to get rescued is not supposed to look like God yet, they would probably look like a devil first! We don’t have to argue or convince them, we’ve got to get more holy ourselves so we can show them what it looks like, so they can see the difference in spirit and truth and cross over the plank to the other boat.
Merely telling someone does not “work” very well if we ourselves do not live out the word. We have to let the word we’d preach be in demonstration, even if that means we have to change ourselves by the power of the word. If we don’t love people, yet we say – Jesus loves you, we’re very deceived. Who in the world is Jesus gonna love someone through! Us, yep that’s right – we’re it, baby. Who’s He gonna use to get people from one boat to the other boat? You, me, us…and no one else. We’re it. We’re the ones who set the example. It is past time to change, quickly and then move in on the other boat, raid it of souls.
Every American Christian alive should live everyday as though it is wrong to right boat switching time. Don’t miss the boat, either by not switching or by not helping someone to switch.
Today is the day of salvation, for someone somewhere, how many will you save with your life preserver today? I’m serious, time is running out. If you don’t see that, you need to cry out to God to see. Be like blind Bartemaeus who cried out, Jesus- Son of David have mercy on me, so that I can see. I want to see! Your sight is for the salvation of many others. You’ve got to see to save somebody. If you don’t, you do not have a fear of God or a fear of hell’s fire or a fear of judgment.
Forget fearing man, just forget it – it IS that easy. Ask God for revelation. It’s a matter of eternal life or death, yours mine and others.
Be blessed today with seeing eyes, and hearing ears, and a willing heart.
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Luke 12:1-59
A Warning against Hypocrisy
1Meanwhile, the crowds grew until thousands were milling about and crushing each other. Jesus turned first to his disciples and warned them, "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees—beware of their hypocrisy. 2The time is coming when everything will be revealed; all that is secret will be made public. 3Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!
4"Dear friends, don't be afraid of those who want to kill you. They can only kill the body; they cannot do any more to you. 5But I'll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill people and then throw them into hell.
6"What is the price of five sparrows? A couple of pennies? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. 7And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows.
8"And I assure you of this: If anyone acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I, the Son of Man, will openly acknowledge that person in the presence of God's angels. 9But if anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that person before God's angels. 10Yet those who speak against the Son of Man may be forgiven, but anyone who speaks blasphemies against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven.
11"And when you are brought to trial in the synagogues and before rulers and authorities, don't worry about what to say in your defense, 12for the Holy Spirit will teach you what needs to be said even as you are standing there."
Story of the Rich Fool
13Then someone called from the crowd, "Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father's estate with me."
14Jesus replied, "Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?" 15Then he said, "Beware! Don't be greedy for what you don't have. Real life is not measured by how much we own."
16And he gave an illustration: "A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. 17In fact, his barns were full to overflowing. 18So he said, 'I know! I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I'll have room enough to store everything. 19And I'll sit back and say to myself, My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!'
20"But God said to him, 'You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get it all?'
21"Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God."
Teaching about Money and Possessions
22Then turning to his disciples, Jesus said, "So I tell you, don't worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food to eat or clothes to wear. 23For life consists of far more than food and clothing. 24Look at the ravens. They don't need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because God feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than any birds! 25Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not! 26And if worry can't do little things like that, what's the use of worrying over bigger things?
27"Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 28And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't he more surely care for you? You have so little faith! 29And don't worry about food—what to eat and drink. Don't worry whether God will provide it for you. 30These things dominate the thoughts of most people, but your Father already knows your needs. 31He will give you all you need from day to day if you make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.
32"So don't be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.
33"Sell what you have and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven have no holes in them. Your treasure will be safe—no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. 34Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.
Be Ready for the Lord's Coming
35"Be dressed for service and well prepared, 36as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast. Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks. 37There will be special favor for those who are ready and waiting for his return. I tell you, he himself will seat them, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat! 38He may come in the middle of the night or just before dawn. F61 But whenever he comes, there will be special favor for his servants who are ready!
39"Know this: A homeowner who knew exactly when a burglar was coming would not permit the house to be broken into. 40You must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected."
41Peter asked, "Lord, is this illustration just for us or for everyone?"
42And the Lord replied, "I'm talking to any faithful, sensible servant to whom the master gives the responsibility of managing his household and feeding his family. 43If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. 44I assure you, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. 45But if the servant thinks, 'My master won't be back for a while,' and begins oppressing the other servants, partying, and getting drunk—46well, the master will return unannounced and unexpected. He will tear the servant apart and banish him with the unfaithful. 47The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it.
48"But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given.
Jesus Causes Division
49"I have come to bring fire to the earth, and I wish that my task were already completed! 50There is a terrible baptism ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. 51Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to bring strife and division! 52From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or the other way around. 53There will be a division between father and son, mother and daughter, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law."
54Then Jesus turned to the crowd and said, "When you see clouds beginning to form in the west, you say, 'Here comes a shower.' And you are right. 55When the south wind blows, you say, 'Today will be a scorcher.' And it is. 56You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but you can't interpret these present times.
57"Why can't you decide for yourselves what is right? 58If you are on the way to court and you meet your accuser, try to settle the matter before it reaches the judge, or you may be sentenced and handed over to an officer and thrown in jail. 59And if that happens, you won't be free again until you have paid the last penny."
FOOTNOTES:F61: Greek in the second or third watch.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
Why would we fear what men can do to us here, naturally speaking, when God, who is eternal and is the judge of all life, who’s judgments cannot be repented of, is who we will eternally stand before and give our life’s accounts to?
What He’s said is true, which is why it is important to believe, trust in and rely on His word as truth and change into its conformity.
If God’s word does not change and it says something like, “those who fornicate will have no part in My kingdom”, yet society or culture or bad experiences tell us to ignore His word and fornicate, we will find ourselves facing an unrelenting word of God in our eternal end, no matter how we got into eternity, the fact will be we will find ourselves there standing before a righteous judge. His righteousness won’t say, “Oh, no big deal, it was ok according to your culture, I understood your experiences have prevented you from coming to Me”….
No, His word, which is eternal, will come up and we will be asked if we obeyed it because of the love of God in our hearts that led us into truth. The judgment will not be based on earthly excuse, not a one will stand. We will give account for how much of the word of God was available to us to know.
United States- American’s have no excuse at all. Even if a person never verbally told us truth, it has been made available for the taking, whosoever will take it, can have as much as they can stand to have. There will also be another matter given account to, “Do you know My Son and did you help anyone else to come to know and love Him?” What did our lives, given to us by God, say about Jesus?
That should cause us to fear enough to quake inside, outside and all around! Fear man and what he can do? What has man done? He’s been used by an enemy power, a spirit of darkness, to place a cloak over men’s eyes and lie to others about what there is to fear. He’s been deceived. This life here is temporary, leading to another, eternal life with or without a Father- THE Father. This life is about finding that Father and helping others find Him and His great love. That’s all this life is about, really.
Do you see how far off track we’ve gotten? If that’s all it’s about, have some of us gotten on the wrong boat? So what do we do now? Ask for a lifesaver and get off the wrong boat, cry out to get on the right boat and do all you can to get the understanding it takes, not only to merely understand, but to get others off the wrong boat and onto the right one. That boat you were on is eternally sinking! The people are dying and they don’t even know why they lived.
All the while, those on the wrong boat, who missed the right boat, are wondering how their hair or outfits look and who has the biggest diamonds, or best looking mates and children, who’s got the best job and some just sit and play games or watch TV shows of idealistic reality, which is not a reality at all, the right boat just passed by and they didn’t see, hear or know it was there, neither did they care and no one was sounding an alarm in their ears. Those who thought to change boats were just so glad they’d decided to change boats, once they found out theirs was sinking, but that was because they themselves were glad they’d personally be saved. They didn’t think about saving others, the right boat might be weighted down too much if we saved them all. If we saved them all couldn’t we make the wrong boat a right boat, and repair it too?
Some refuse to change boats because they have too much invested in the wrong boat, they’d lose out on natural income. Then they didn’t want to leave the cargo behind, all the while the cargo is going down with the sinking ship and if they stay, they’ll go down with their stuff also! Dear God, don’t you know the ship is sinking? Don’t you know that your stuff is gonna be on the bottom of the ocean? Don’t you realize that if we don’t tell people they’ll be at the bottom too, drowned? Not only will they drown, but they’ll burn. Is it worth arguing with them over religion and semantics or is it worth being love so they’ll come? Do we need to change them before they get on the saver boat, make sure they look better and don’t say bad words first?
I’ve met a lot of church people who get mad when they are around unsaved people who don’t look like God….I usually try to help them get over that, a person who is in the world and about to get rescued is not supposed to look like God yet, they would probably look like a devil first! We don’t have to argue or convince them, we’ve got to get more holy ourselves so we can show them what it looks like, so they can see the difference in spirit and truth and cross over the plank to the other boat.
Merely telling someone does not “work” very well if we ourselves do not live out the word. We have to let the word we’d preach be in demonstration, even if that means we have to change ourselves by the power of the word. If we don’t love people, yet we say – Jesus loves you, we’re very deceived. Who in the world is Jesus gonna love someone through! Us, yep that’s right – we’re it, baby. Who’s He gonna use to get people from one boat to the other boat? You, me, us…and no one else. We’re it. We’re the ones who set the example. It is past time to change, quickly and then move in on the other boat, raid it of souls.
Every American Christian alive should live everyday as though it is wrong to right boat switching time. Don’t miss the boat, either by not switching or by not helping someone to switch.
Today is the day of salvation, for someone somewhere, how many will you save with your life preserver today? I’m serious, time is running out. If you don’t see that, you need to cry out to God to see. Be like blind Bartemaeus who cried out, Jesus- Son of David have mercy on me, so that I can see. I want to see! Your sight is for the salvation of many others. You’ve got to see to save somebody. If you don’t, you do not have a fear of God or a fear of hell’s fire or a fear of judgment.
Forget fearing man, just forget it – it IS that easy. Ask God for revelation. It’s a matter of eternal life or death, yours mine and others.
Be blessed today with seeing eyes, and hearing ears, and a willing heart.
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
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