The Word, The Bible, The Scriptures; these three nouns are interchangeable. The Word is alive. All Scripture is inspired by God. As we read and learn from The Bible, God speaks to our heart, our faith increases, and our life changes.
God’s Word lasts forever.
All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
1Peter 1:24-25
God’s Word is alive and powerful.
For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12
God’s Word does what it sets out to do in our lives.
For as heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So shall my Word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Isaiah 55:9 and 11
God’s Word Creates.
By The Word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathered the waters of the sea together in a heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.
Psalm 33: 6-9
Believing The Word of God gives New Life.
For you have been born again. Your new life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living Word of God.
1 Peter 1: 23
Jesus is the Word.
In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and He was God. The Word became a Human and lived among us. We saw His glory-the glory that belongs to the only Son of the Father-and He was full of grace and truth.
John 1:1 and John 1:14
In Matthew 4:4, when Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, Jesus said, “People need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every Word of God”.
We pray “Give us this day our daily bread” in The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-15).
We ask God to feed and meet our physical needs. We are also asking God to feed our spirits. Our spirits get fed when we read God’s Word. He wants us to feed on His Word daily.
The Word of God changes lives.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Special People in Our Lives
God speaks to us in the gentle whispers of the wind and in the warm rays of the sunshine. We see Him in the beauty of nature; the beauty of His creation.
We experience God and his love through the people He places in our lives.
Each day is a gift from God.
God has given us morning and the sun. Today, I had a wonderful morning. The sun was shining and I was free to worship God. I was in church with special people; people I love. God’s plan for my life and their lives is perfect. I went up to the alter to receive communion with my husband, sister, brother-in-law, and two life long friends. Richard, Marlene and Kenny, and our friends, also Anna and Richie, sang praises to our God and He spoke to our hearts.
God has given us rainbows, flowers, and song. He has given us our dear ones to help us as we travel through life. We are on a path to perfection as we search for love, meaning, and truth. We search for the reality of God in our lives. We will never be perfect or righteous; in and of ourselves. As we believe in Christ and put on His righteousness, He will help us to be holy, even as He is holy. Matthew 5: 48 tells us to be perfect, even as our heavenly Father is perfect. We serve a perfect God.
We see God in the people we love, in His creation, and in His precious Word.
God gives us night and the moon. Marlene, Ken, and I went outside to look into the black night sky. It was filled with bright twinkling stars and it was lit by a full moon. The full moon was surrounded by a moving cloud. The cool Keys breeze gently moved the palm trees in the night air. I cannot under stand how anyone can question the existence of our Creator as daily, we experience His creation.
God gives us His word, He gives us prayers, and He gives us His power through the Holy Spirit within us. He lightens our hearts in troubled times and lifts our spirits as we commune with Him.
God gives us His favor and Blessing and the gift of each new day. Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
I rejoice in today. I rejoice in the Lord. I rejoice in having wonderful family and friends. Today I rejoiced in the Lord as I worshipped Him in church and I rejoiced as I enjoyed the company of family and friends. I rejoiced as I celebrated life and thanked God for His creation and Blessings. I saw and felt Him in His creation and in the loved ones who shared these moments with me.
We experience God and his love through the people He places in our lives.
Each day is a gift from God.
God has given us morning and the sun. Today, I had a wonderful morning. The sun was shining and I was free to worship God. I was in church with special people; people I love. God’s plan for my life and their lives is perfect. I went up to the alter to receive communion with my husband, sister, brother-in-law, and two life long friends. Richard, Marlene and Kenny, and our friends, also Anna and Richie, sang praises to our God and He spoke to our hearts.
God has given us rainbows, flowers, and song. He has given us our dear ones to help us as we travel through life. We are on a path to perfection as we search for love, meaning, and truth. We search for the reality of God in our lives. We will never be perfect or righteous; in and of ourselves. As we believe in Christ and put on His righteousness, He will help us to be holy, even as He is holy. Matthew 5: 48 tells us to be perfect, even as our heavenly Father is perfect. We serve a perfect God.
We see God in the people we love, in His creation, and in His precious Word.
God gives us night and the moon. Marlene, Ken, and I went outside to look into the black night sky. It was filled with bright twinkling stars and it was lit by a full moon. The full moon was surrounded by a moving cloud. The cool Keys breeze gently moved the palm trees in the night air. I cannot under stand how anyone can question the existence of our Creator as daily, we experience His creation.
God gives us His word, He gives us prayers, and He gives us His power through the Holy Spirit within us. He lightens our hearts in troubled times and lifts our spirits as we commune with Him.
God gives us His favor and Blessing and the gift of each new day. Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
I rejoice in today. I rejoice in the Lord. I rejoice in having wonderful family and friends. Today I rejoiced in the Lord as I worshipped Him in church and I rejoiced as I enjoyed the company of family and friends. I rejoiced as I celebrated life and thanked God for His creation and Blessings. I saw and felt Him in His creation and in the loved ones who shared these moments with me.
Monday, February 14, 2011
LOVE
God is Love and the commandment which He says is the greatest commandment of all gives us the instruction to love. In Mark 12: 29-31, Jesus said, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength’. ‘The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
The secret to loving is not in rules. It is in relationships. Our neighbor is anyone who has a need and we have the ability to meet that need. Jesus is our “Good Samaritan” and we are to be “The Good Samaritan” to others. The love that we receive from Christ should be passed through us. They will know that we are Christians by our love as we reflect Christ and His compassion to others.
The story of the Good Samaritan is found in Luke 10: 25-36. The story was told by Jesus in response to a young lawyer. He questioned, “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered by telling him to love God and his neighbor. The lawyer asked, “who is my neighbor?” Jesus used the story of the “Good Samaritan to answer his question. This story shows us that genuine love always requires risk, compassion, contact, care, and cost. You cannot love someone without it costing you something.
Love in Scripture:
1 John 4:19 : “We love because He first loved us”
Psalm 103:11 : “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him.”
Psalm 108:4 : “For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.”
1 John 4:9 : “God showed how much He loved us by sending His only Son into this world to bring to us eternal life through His death.”
John 15:13 : “Greater love has no man than this; that a man gives up his life for his friends.”
1 John 4
1 Corinthians 13
Love and Law merge in The 10 Commandments. Jesus came to fulfill the Law
We are not to have love without law (The 10 Commandments give us God’s moral law)
We are not to have law without love (as the Pharisees did)
The secret to loving is not in rules. It is in relationships. Our neighbor is anyone who has a need and we have the ability to meet that need. Jesus is our “Good Samaritan” and we are to be “The Good Samaritan” to others. The love that we receive from Christ should be passed through us. They will know that we are Christians by our love as we reflect Christ and His compassion to others.
The story of the Good Samaritan is found in Luke 10: 25-36. The story was told by Jesus in response to a young lawyer. He questioned, “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered by telling him to love God and his neighbor. The lawyer asked, “who is my neighbor?” Jesus used the story of the “Good Samaritan to answer his question. This story shows us that genuine love always requires risk, compassion, contact, care, and cost. You cannot love someone without it costing you something.
Love in Scripture:
1 John 4:19 : “We love because He first loved us”
Psalm 103:11 : “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him.”
Psalm 108:4 : “For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.”
1 John 4:9 : “God showed how much He loved us by sending His only Son into this world to bring to us eternal life through His death.”
John 15:13 : “Greater love has no man than this; that a man gives up his life for his friends.”
1 John 4
1 Corinthians 13
Love and Law merge in The 10 Commandments. Jesus came to fulfill the Law
We are not to have love without law (The 10 Commandments give us God’s moral law)
We are not to have law without love (as the Pharisees did)
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Time is a Gift
God's gifts to us are precious. The gift of time is precious; a precious treasure. We can never retrieve wasted minutes, hours, weeks, or years. Do we take time for granted? How do we invest our gift of time? The clock and the calendar are measurements of time. Whether our life is short or long, each day brings us closer to the end of our earthly existence, our physical life. We are to invest every minute wisely. Sleep and rest are as much a part of that investment as is time spent in activity. Time is the dimension in which everything exists.
James 4:14 says, “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away”.
Our physical life is temporary; as is a vapor in time. Each of us will experience the death of our physical bodies but our spirits will live on through eternity. Our mind and all that we have learned while in the body on earth will always remain who we are in eternity. Our choices, now on earth, will determine how we spend eternity. When we choose to believe, God promises us that we will be with Him forever.
1 John 5:13 says, “I write this to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may KNOW you have eternal life”. As a believer, I know that I have eternal life. I have the assurance of God's promise. Because of my choice to believe, I will never be, now, or eternally, separated from the Love of God.
2 Corinthians 6:1,2 says, “We are workers together with God, so we beg you; Do not let the grace that you received from God be for nothing. God says, 'At the right time I heard your prayers. On the day of salvation I helped you.' I tell you that the right time is now, and the day of salvation is now”. Now is the time. We are instructed to choose, in this moment of time, to believe or reject what God has taught us in his Word. The decision is to be made today, before our physical death, because no one knows the time table of one's life.
I believe that there is purpose to each of our lives. God has given us enough time to do His will daily and throughout our lifetime. God gave two of my children very short lives; Elisa, 9 years and Carrie, 2 weeks of time. They didn't need the lessons learned in a long life. God used their time with us, and the suffering which we went through, to lead Richard, Erica, Christa, and me into increased faith and deeper spiritual walks. Elisa and Carrie live on through us, and through the lives of others who have been touched by God through them.
Lately, I have also been thinking about my Dad who died in 1986 when he was 77 years old (his birthday was February 16th), Richie's Aunt Carrie who died in 1985 when she was 90 years old (her birthday was March 9th) and my friend Heidi who died on Valentine's Day two years ago. Each of them made a choice to believe. I know that they are with the Lord. God used each of them in my life. I am so grateful for the time He gave them to be part of my life and to be part of God's plan for my life.
A number of years ago, I read Mitch Albom's book, “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”. It is an easy read and shows how each of our lives, here on earth, is connected. We can change someone's destiny by a chance meeting or the spoken word. Sometimes we know how we affect another person's life; sometimes we don't have a clue about what we did or said. In a moment, we can make a lasting impression or changing influence on the destiny of another without ever being aware of the fact that we did. One example of this in my life is a letter which I received from a patient. I had taken care of him on the Oncology Unit. It was a thank you note, thanking me for the words of encouragement which I had given to him. Time is fast paced when a nurse is trying to complete all the required tasks in a day's assignment. God must have given me the words and I must have given some of my precious time to comfort him. A few weeks later when I received the note, I could not remember what the patient looked like or the words which had been said. I just knew that I had made a difference. When we follow God's leading, we don't always see the fruit of our words or labor. Our reward is usually eternal, not immediate. But, I think that God, once and awhile, does give us a glimpse of the things which He is accomplishing through us. He encourages us to keep using our time to serve Him. We are sure to meet people in heaven whom we have affected but didn't realize it at the time. Let us be kind to, and honest with, everyone we meet!
We make choices every day about how we spend our daily gifts of time. What are our priorities? Who are our priorities? Do we take enough time to take care of our physical bodies by giving them adequate nutrition, exercise, and rest? Do we renew our minds? Do we feed our spirits through prayer, reading the word, worshiping, praising, and listening to and talking to God? Is God first in our life? Is spending time with Him important to us? Do we put time with our family on top of our priority list? We should self reflect and review our priorities. An appraisal of the way we spend our time can lead us in to making important and positive changes in our life. A change in our priorities will be evidenced by a change in who we are and how we treat others. An adjustment in the way we spend our time will influence the lives of those around us. It will have an effect on our spiritual growth and in our personal relationship with God. Very little will change until we make a conscious decision to adjust our priorities and alter how we spend our time.
James 4:14 says, “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away”.
Our physical life is temporary; as is a vapor in time. Each of us will experience the death of our physical bodies but our spirits will live on through eternity. Our mind and all that we have learned while in the body on earth will always remain who we are in eternity. Our choices, now on earth, will determine how we spend eternity. When we choose to believe, God promises us that we will be with Him forever.
1 John 5:13 says, “I write this to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may KNOW you have eternal life”. As a believer, I know that I have eternal life. I have the assurance of God's promise. Because of my choice to believe, I will never be, now, or eternally, separated from the Love of God.
2 Corinthians 6:1,2 says, “We are workers together with God, so we beg you; Do not let the grace that you received from God be for nothing. God says, 'At the right time I heard your prayers. On the day of salvation I helped you.' I tell you that the right time is now, and the day of salvation is now”. Now is the time. We are instructed to choose, in this moment of time, to believe or reject what God has taught us in his Word. The decision is to be made today, before our physical death, because no one knows the time table of one's life.
I believe that there is purpose to each of our lives. God has given us enough time to do His will daily and throughout our lifetime. God gave two of my children very short lives; Elisa, 9 years and Carrie, 2 weeks of time. They didn't need the lessons learned in a long life. God used their time with us, and the suffering which we went through, to lead Richard, Erica, Christa, and me into increased faith and deeper spiritual walks. Elisa and Carrie live on through us, and through the lives of others who have been touched by God through them.
Lately, I have also been thinking about my Dad who died in 1986 when he was 77 years old (his birthday was February 16th), Richie's Aunt Carrie who died in 1985 when she was 90 years old (her birthday was March 9th) and my friend Heidi who died on Valentine's Day two years ago. Each of them made a choice to believe. I know that they are with the Lord. God used each of them in my life. I am so grateful for the time He gave them to be part of my life and to be part of God's plan for my life.
A number of years ago, I read Mitch Albom's book, “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”. It is an easy read and shows how each of our lives, here on earth, is connected. We can change someone's destiny by a chance meeting or the spoken word. Sometimes we know how we affect another person's life; sometimes we don't have a clue about what we did or said. In a moment, we can make a lasting impression or changing influence on the destiny of another without ever being aware of the fact that we did. One example of this in my life is a letter which I received from a patient. I had taken care of him on the Oncology Unit. It was a thank you note, thanking me for the words of encouragement which I had given to him. Time is fast paced when a nurse is trying to complete all the required tasks in a day's assignment. God must have given me the words and I must have given some of my precious time to comfort him. A few weeks later when I received the note, I could not remember what the patient looked like or the words which had been said. I just knew that I had made a difference. When we follow God's leading, we don't always see the fruit of our words or labor. Our reward is usually eternal, not immediate. But, I think that God, once and awhile, does give us a glimpse of the things which He is accomplishing through us. He encourages us to keep using our time to serve Him. We are sure to meet people in heaven whom we have affected but didn't realize it at the time. Let us be kind to, and honest with, everyone we meet!
We make choices every day about how we spend our daily gifts of time. What are our priorities? Who are our priorities? Do we take enough time to take care of our physical bodies by giving them adequate nutrition, exercise, and rest? Do we renew our minds? Do we feed our spirits through prayer, reading the word, worshiping, praising, and listening to and talking to God? Is God first in our life? Is spending time with Him important to us? Do we put time with our family on top of our priority list? We should self reflect and review our priorities. An appraisal of the way we spend our time can lead us in to making important and positive changes in our life. A change in our priorities will be evidenced by a change in who we are and how we treat others. An adjustment in the way we spend our time will influence the lives of those around us. It will have an effect on our spiritual growth and in our personal relationship with God. Very little will change until we make a conscious decision to adjust our priorities and alter how we spend our time.
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