Friday, April 30, 2010

All things (NT)

And looking at them Jesus said to them, " With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

"And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

"Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you

" For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.

" All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you

All [things that are] Mine are Yours, and all [things that are] Yours belong to Me; and I am glorified in (through) them. [They have done Me honor; in them My glory is achieved.]

Matthew 19:26 Matthew 21:22 Mark 11:24 John 5:20 John 16:15 John 17:10

For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets. Acts 3:21

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Thursday, April 29, 2010

All things


For what great nation is there who has a god so near to them as the Lord our God is to us in all things for which we call upon Him?

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the
one who is over all things.

"But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You.

NOW ABRAHAM was old, well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed Abraham
in all things.

Evil men do not understand justice, But those who seek the LORD understand all things.

All things have been entrusted and delivered to Me by My Father; and no one fully knows and accurately understands the Son except the Father, and no one fully knows and accurately understands the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son deliberately wills to make Him known.

Deuteronomy 4:7 1 Chronicles 29:11 1 Chronicles 29:14 Genesis 24:1 Proverbs 28:5 Matthew 11:27

All creation is an outstretched finger pointing toward God.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Example

If anyone serves Me, he must continue to follow Me [ to cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying] and wherever I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

Later Jesus and his disciples were at home having supper with a collection of disreputable guests. Unlikely as it seems, more than a few of them had become followers. The religion scholars and Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company and lit into his disciples: "What kind of example is this, acting cozy with the riffraff?"

For I have given you this as an example, so that you should do [in your turn] what I have done to you.

And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.

PATTERN YOURSELVES after me [follow my example], as I imitate and follow Christ (the Messiah).

THEREFORE BE imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father].

John 12:26 Mark 2:15 John 13:15 Acts 20:35 1 Corinthians 11:1 Ephesians 5:1

We shape tomorrow’s world by what we teach our children today.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Outcome


As for me, I heard but could not understand; so I said, "My lord, what will be the outcome of these events?"

For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.

Therefore, [inheriting] the promise is the outcome of faith and depends [entirely] on faith, in order that it might be given as an act of grace (unmerited favor), to make it stable and valid and guaranteed to all his descendants--not only to the devotees and adherents of the Law, but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, who is [thus] the father of us all.

Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ's death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation

But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.

Daniel 12:8 Jeremiah 29:11 Romans 4:16 Hebrews 9:27 Romans 6:22

It’s not what you do but who you are that’s most important.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Monday, April 26, 2010

Praise


Jesus said, "I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.

But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

A person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

Matthew 11:25 Matthew 5:16 Acts 16:25 Romans 2:29 Romans 5:1 Romans 15:6

Praise has the power to lighten our heaviest burden.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Friday, April 23, 2010

Wherever

Granada, Spain - from the Alhambra
For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

And Saul just went wild, devastating the church, entering house after house after house, dragging men and women off to jail. Forced to leave home base, the followers of Jesus all became missionaries. Wherever they were scattered, they preached the Message about Jesus.

I'm glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess… I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

We pondered your love-in-action, God, waiting in your temple: Your name, God, evokes a train of Hallelujahs wherever It is spoken, near and far; your arms are heaped with goodness-in-action.

Wherever he went—in villages, cities, or the countryside—they brought the sick out to the marketplaces. They begged him to let the sick touch at least the fringe of his robe, and all who touched him were healed.

2 Corinthians 3:17 Matthew 6:21 Acts 8:3 Philippians 4:10 Psalm 48:9 Mark 6:56

No matter where you to, God goes with you.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God


Thursday, April 22, 2010

Draw Near


Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, "I have no delight in them";

But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God and made Him my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.

When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.

Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil.

Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples! Let the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it.

Let us all come forward and draw near with true (honest and sincere) hearts in unqualified assurance and absolute conviction engendered by faith (by that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness)

Ecclesiastes 12:1 Psalm 73:28 Deuteronomy 20:10 Ecclesiastes 5:1 Isaiah 34:1 Hebrews 10:22

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
James 4:8

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Careful

"Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don't make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won't be applauding.

Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. "The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God's Law. You won't go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don't live it. They don't take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It's all spit-and-polish veneer.

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things

"No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a washtub or shoves it under the bed. No, you set it up on a lamp stand so those who enter the room can see their way. We're not keeping secrets; we're telling them. We're not hiding things; we're bringing everything out into the open. So be careful that you don't become misers of what you hear. Generosity begets generosity. Stinginess impoverishes."

But by shifting our focus from what we do to what God does, don't we cancel out all our careful keeping of the rules and ways God commanded? Not at all. What happens, in fact, is that by putting that entire way of life in its proper place, we confirm it

Matthew 6:1 Matthew 23:1 Matthew 23:23 Luke 8:16 Romans 3:31

It is a dangerous presumption to say, “Tomorrow,” when God says, “Today!”

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God


Tuesday, April 20, 2010

just

I will thank the Lord because he is just;

Quick, God, I need your helping hand! The last decent person just went down, All the friends I depended on gone. Everyone talks in lie language; Lies slide off their oily lips. They doubletalk with forked tongues.

God holds the high center, he sees and sets the world's mess right. He decides what is right for us earthlings, gives people their just deserts.

But there is forgiveness with You [just what man needs], that You may be reverently feared and worshiped.

He loves whatever is just and good; the unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth.

If you want to enter the life of God, just do what he tells you."

Psalm 7:17 Psalm 12:1 Psalm 9:7 Psalm 130:4 Psalm 33:5 Matthew 19:17

As the years add up, God’s faithfulness multiplies.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Monday, April 19, 2010

Debt

Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty. Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker canceled both debts. Which of the two would be more grateful?"

Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don't sleep with another person's spouse, don't take someone's life, don't take what isn't yours, don't always be wanting what you don't have, and any other "don't" you can think of—finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can't go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.

"The king summoned the man and said, 'You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn't you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?' The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that's exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn't forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy."

Keep out of debt and owe no man anything, except to love one another;

Luke 7:41 Romans 13:8 Matthew 18:32 Romans 13:8

Love is the debt we owe one another.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Friday, April 16, 2010

Favorite

But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden.

For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus and great among the Jews, and was a favorite with the multitude of his brethren, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to his whole race.

When things were going great I crowed, "I've got it made. I'm God's favorite. He made me king of the mountain." Then you looked the other way and I fell to pieces.

Applause, everyone. Bravo, bravissimo! Shout God-songs at the top of your lungs! God Most High is stunning, astride land and ocean. He crushes hostile people, puts nations at our feet. He set us at the head of the line, prize-winning Jacob, his favorite. Loud cheers as God climbs the mountain, a ram's horn blast at the summit. Sing songs to God, sing out! Sing to our King, sing praise! He's Lord over earth, so sing your best songs to God. God is Lord of godless nations— sovereign, he's King of the mountain. Princes from all over are gathered, people of Abraham's God. The powers of earth are God's— he soars over all.

We thank you, God, we thank you— your Name is our favorite word; your mighty works are all we talk about.

Genesis 39:21 Esther 10:3 Psalm 30:6 Psalm 47:1 Psalm 75:1

A heart touched by grace brings joy to the face.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Try

God made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him. When I got my act together, he gave me a fresh start. Now I'm alert to God's ways; I don't take God for granted. Every day I review the ways he works; I try not to miss a trick. I feel put back together, and I'm watching my step. God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.

The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life! Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over.

"People and their leaders will come from all over to see what's going on. The leaders will confer with one another: 'Shouldn't we try to get in on this? Get in on God's blessings? Pray to God-of-the-Angel-Armies? What's keeping us? Let's go!

Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth.

Psalm 18:20 Proverbs 20:24 Proverbs 3:5 Zechariah 8:20 1 Corinthians 14:1

When we put our problems in God’s hands, He puts His peace in our hearts.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Trust


Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness.

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.

God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful: wise counsel clear understanding simple trust healing the sick miraculous acts proclamation distinguishing between spirits tongues interpretation of tongues. All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.

But for right now…we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

Romans 11:22 Romans 15:13 1 Corinthians 1:18 1 Corinthians 12:4 1 Corinthians 13:13

God is greater than our greatest problem

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Certain


Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.

"This is the way God works. Over and over again He pulls our souls back from certain destruction so we'll see the light—and live in the light.

Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Remember that nothing is certain in this life.

I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more [certain], now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin's dominion) through His [ resurrection] life.

Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.

Luke 1:4 Job 33:29 Ecclesiastes 7:14 John 16:33 Romans 5:10 Hebrews 6:11

Keep your eyes on God and you’ll soon lose sight of your fears.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Monday, April 12, 2010

Forever

Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].

For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.

So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.

So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love

For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever!

Romans 8:6 Romans 8:13 2 Corinthians 4:16 2 Corinthians 4:18 1 Corinthians 13:13 Romans 11:36

Praise is the overflow of a joyful heart.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Friday, April 09, 2010

Provide


You visit the earth and saturate it with water; You greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; You provide them with grain when You have so prepared the earth.

Let my cry come right into your presence, God; provide me with the insight that comes only from your Word. Give my request your personal attention, rescue me on the terms of your promise. Let praise cascade off my lips; after all, you've taught me the truth about life! And let your promises ring from my tongue; every order you've given is right. Put your hand out and steady me since I've chosen to live by your counsel. I'm homesick, God, for your salvation; I love it when you show yourself! Invigorate my soul so I can praise you well…

Profound and reverent fear seized them all, and they began to recognize God and praise and give thanks, saying, A great Prophet has appeared among us! And God has visited His people [in order to help and care for and provide for them]!

Jesus once again addressed them: "I am the world's Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in."

"If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you. I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you.

And [God] Who provides seed for the sower and bread for eating will also provide and multiply your [resources for] sowing and increase the fruits of your righteousness [ which manifests itself in active goodness, kindness, and charity].

Psalm 65:9 Psalm 119:169 Luke 7:16 John 8:12 John 14:15 2 Corinthians 9:10

A single light can provide hope in the darkest night.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Best


Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

Romans 5:9 Romans 8:12 Romans 12:1 1 Corinthians 13:3 1 Corinthians 13:13

The world rewards quick success; God rewards long-term faithfulness.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God


Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Wholeness

Keep your eye on the healthy soul, scrutinize the straight life; there’s a future in strenuous wholeness.

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way!

For a child has been born—for us! the gift of a son—for us! He'll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness. His ruling authority will grow, and there'll be no limits to the wholeness he brings. He'll rule from the historic David throne over that promised kingdom. He'll put that kingdom on a firm footing and keep it going With fair dealing and right living, beginning now and lasting always. The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies will do all this.

"'This Temple is going to end up far better than it started out, a glorious beginning but an even more glorious finish: a place in which I will hand out wholeness and holiness.' Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies."

Psalm 37:37 Philippians 4:6 Romans 6:22 Isaiah 9:2 Haggai 2:9

For a Christian, wholeness always comes after brokenness.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Fellowship


And Enoch in close fellowship with God. Then one day he disappeared, because God took him.

Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.

For though the Lord is high, yet has He respect to the lowly [bringing them into fellowship with Him]; but the proud and haughty He knows and recognizes [only] at a distance.

Even so consider yourselves …alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.

So then, those who are people of faith are blessed and made happy and favored by God [as partners in fellowship] with the believing and trusting Abraham

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Genesis 5:24 Genesis 6:9 Psalm 138:6 Romans 6:11 Galatians 3:9 2 Corinthians 13:14

Jesus longs for our fellowship even more than we long for His.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Monday, April 05, 2010

Set free

“But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?”

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free.

When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity."

For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin

And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action).

Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, "Papa! Father!" Doesn't that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you're also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.

John 8:33 Luke 4:18 Luke 13:12 Romans 6:7 Romans 6:18 Galatians 4:4

There’s no better news than the Gospel – spread the word!

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Resurrection

"Dear friends, let me be completely frank with you. Our ancestor David is dead and buried—his tomb is in plain sight today. But being also a prophet and knowing that God had solemnly sworn that a descendant of his would rule his kingdom, seeing far ahead, he talked of the resurrection of the Messiah…. This Jesus, God raised up. And every one of us here is a witness to it.

And with great strength and ability and power the apostles delivered their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace (loving-kindness and favor and goodwill) rested richly upon them all.

Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more [certain], now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin's dominion) through His [ resurrection] life.

So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.

Acts 2:29 Acts 4:33 Romans 6:6 1 Corinthians 15:42 Romans 5:10 Colossians 3:1

He is Risen. Alleluia!!!

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God

Friday, April 02, 2010

Precepts

But you [Moses], stand here by Me, and I will tell you all the commandments and the statutes and the precepts which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess.

And if you hearken to these precepts and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love which He swore to your fathers.

Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His precepts, and His statutes which I command you today.

You have [openly] declared the Lord this day to be your God, [pledging] to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes and His commandments and His precepts, and to hearken to His voice.

I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.

And what this love consists in is this: that we live and walk in accordance with and guided by His commandments (His orders, ordinances, precepts, teaching). This is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you continue to walk in love [guided by it and following it].

Deuteronomy 5:31 Deuteronomy 7:12 Deuteronomy 8:11 Deuteronomy 26:17 Psalm 119:45 2 John 1:6

Nails could not have kept Jesus on the cross if His love for us had not held Him there.

LIFEgroups – together experiencing God


Thursday, April 01, 2010

Much


No king is saved by the great size and power of his army; a mighty man is not delivered by [his] much strength.

Train me, God, to walk straight; then I'll follow your true path. Put me together, one heart and mind; then, undivided, I'll worship in joyful fear. From the bottom of my heart I thank you, dear Lord; I've never kept secret what you're up to. … Make a show of how much you love me so the bullies who hate me will stand there slack-jawed, As you, God, gently and powerfully put me back on my feet.

The [reverent] fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even than much fine gold; they are sweeter also than honey and drippings from the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is Your servant warned (reminded, illuminated, and instructed); and in keeping them there is great reward.

I'm thanking you, God, out in the streets, singing your praises in town and country. The deeper your love, the higher it goes; every cloud's a flag to your faithfulness. Soar high in the skies, O God! Cover the whole earth with your glory! And for the sake of the one you love so much, reach down and help me—answer me

And a windfall, if it comes— don't make too much of it.

I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches.

Psalm 33:16 Psalm 86:11 Psalm 19:10 Psalm 108:3 Psalm 62:10 Psalm 119:14

It is a dangerous presumption to say, “Tomorrow,” when God says, “Today!”

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