Archive for the ‘Christian’ Category
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Old Testament Minimalism
I was reading Ecclesiastes 5 last night and it struck me that this is a take on minimalism. To find what satisfies you and to not be running after material things. Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, was right about this too.
Riches Are Meaningless
8 If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still. 9 The increase from the land is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.
10 Whoever loves money never has enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.
This too is meaningless.11 As goods increase,
so do those who consume them.
And what benefit are they to the owners
except to feast their eyes on them?12 The sleep of a laborer is sweet,
whether they eat little or much,
but as for the rich, their abundance
permits them no sleep.13 I have seen a grievous evil under the sun:
wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners,
14 or wealth lost through some misfortune,
so that when they have children
there is nothing left for them to inherit.
15 Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb,
and as everyone comes, so they depart.
They take nothing from their toil
that they can carry in their hands.16 This too is a grievous evil:
As everyone comes, so they depart,
and what do they gain,
since they toil for the wind?
17 All their days they eat in darkness,
with great frustration, affliction and anger.18 This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. 20 They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.
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Dry Bones
Today at church our Minister spoke on Ezekiel and the dry bones. He spoke about how the different events during his life seemed insignificant and unimportant by themselves but when he joined them together (like the dry bones) it made up a story of how God was speaking in his life. What are some dry bones that seem inconsequetial in your life that God is working together for something greater? Sometimes if we sit and look at our lives through the lens of hindsight so much more is revealed than what was going on at that moment before.
The scripture references were:
Ezekiel 37:1-14; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-27 (New International Version 1984, ©1984)
New International Version 1984, ©1984 (NIV1984) Ezekiel 37:1-14
Listen to this passageEzekiel 37
The Valley of Dry Bones
1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”
Footnotes:- Ezekiel 37:5 The Hebrew for this word can also mean wind or spirit (see verses 6-14).
New International Version 1984, ©1984 (NIV1984)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by BiblicaRomans 8:6-11
Listen to this passage6 The mind of sinful man[a] is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind[b] is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Footnotes:- Romans 8:6 Or mind set on the flesh
- Romans 8:7 Or the mind set on the flesh
New International Version 1984, ©1984 (NIV1984)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by BiblicaJohn 11:1-27
Listen to this passage
View commentary related to this passageJohn 11
The Death of Lazarus
1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
7 Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. 10 It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Jesus Comforts the Sisters
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was less than two miles[a] from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ,[b] the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
Footnotes:- John 11:18 Greek fifteen stadia (about 3 kilometers)
- John 11:27 Or Messiah
New International Version 1984, ©1984 (NIV1984)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica -
The Bible is the Key
Today is the longest day of the year, Summer Solstice. The sun rose quietly behind the clouds at around 4.55am. At about 4.54am, on of my cats, Oscar was walking on my hair, purring loudly about how hungy he was. While all this was going on, God was reminding me of two things by way of a song in my mind and a scripture in my heart. The song is this one below by Casting Crowns and the scripture is Psalm 24:1 (read the entire Psalm below).
The Bible and all it contains is the key to learning about God, growing in Him and being with Him.
Psalm 24 (New International Version, ©2010)
Psalm 24
Of David. A psalm.
1 The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
2 for he founded it on the seas
and established it on the waters.3 Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol
or swear by a false god.[a]5 They will receive blessing from the LORD
and vindication from God their Savior.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, God of Jacob.[b][c]7 Lift up your heads, you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
the LORD mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is he, this King of glory?
The LORD Almighty—
he is the King of glory.Footnotes:- Psalm 24:4 Or swear falsely
- Psalm 24:6 Two Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac (see also Septuagint); most Hebrew manuscripts face, Jacob
- Psalm 24:6 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 10.
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With Hope
Recently I bought the CD “Speechless” by Steven Curtis Chapman. Last night I was listening to it, probably for the first time all the way through, while doing the dishes. When the song “With Hope” came on, it explains one of the reasons why I became a Christian. It made me think of my brothers. I have two you see, one on earth and the other passed before I could met him. He was only young and severely disabled, so I know one day I will meet him. That will be the second most important meeting for me after standing face to face with my Saviour. Here are the words.
This is not at all how
We thought it was supposed to be
We had so many plans for you
We had so many dreams
And now you’ve gone away
And left us with the memories of your smile
And nothing we can say
And nothing we can do
Can take away the pain
The pain of losing you, but…We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
‘Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no
And we can grieve with hope
‘Cause we believe with hope
(There’s a place by God’s grace)
There’s a place where we’ll see your face again
We’ll see your face againAnd never have I known
Anything so hard to understand
And never have I questioned more
The wisdom of God’s plan
But through the cloud of tears
I see the Father’s smile and say well done
And I imagine you
Where you wanted most to be
Seeing all your dreams come true
‘Cause now you’re home
And now you’re free, and…We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
‘Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no
And we can grieve with hope
‘Cause we believe with hope
(There’s a place by God’s grace)
There’s a place where we’ll see your face again
We’ll see your face again
We have this hope as an anchor
‘Cause we believe that everything
God promised us is true, so…We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
‘Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no
And we can grieve with hope
‘Cause we believe with hope
(There’s a place by God’s grace)
There’s a place where we’ll see your face again
We’ll see your face againWe wait with hope
And we ache with hope
We hold on with hope
We let go with hope
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Love.
Today I got an email, you know the ones, full of optimistic positivity focussing on love of self and disregarding all else. Here is a portion of it.
Life is too short to wake up with regrets.
Love the people who treat you right.
Forget about the ones who don’t.
Believe everything happens for a reason.
If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands.
If it changes your life, let it.
Nobody said life would be easy.
They just promised it would be worth it.Most of it is very wrong thinking (does not line up with God’s Word) but what struck me the most was the phrase -
“Love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don’t.”My thoughts immediately was, who will love the unlovable ones.You know the ones who don’t treat anyone right. The ones who everyone has abandoned.
The very next line in this flawed poem says “if you get a second chance grab it with both hands”. What about offering a second (or third or 490th) chance to someone who oh-so-doesn’t deserve it?
Because you don’t either. We are all human.
We all breathe the same air, bleed the same colour and return to the dust when we die.
We are all sinners and no one deserves a second chance. That’s where God’s grace comes swooping in. He saves us from our flaws and sins and unlovableness. He loves us unconditionally, expecting NOTHING in return.
He commanded us to love one another, not only those who treat us right. He died for all, not just those who have ticked the right boxes of some weird popularity contest.
We need to love each other, even the unlovable.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 1Corinthians 13:4-5
I pray that God lets those who listen, hear and those who look, see.
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Do you know God?
Knowing God and knowing about Him are two very different and separate things.
Let me use facebook to illustrate.
A friend of mine was new to facebook and saw someone he admired so he asked him to be his friend. The reply came something like this. “I wish I could be your friend, but as we have never met, I would suggest for you to go to my fan page and join.” See people who have never met in any way can not be friends. I am not saying that you can’t make friends over the internet, but if you’ve never interacted with them via email, text, forums, facebook conversations, telephone, skype, or some other way, you don’t know them, even in passing, so how can you be friends? You don’t know them, but you know of them.
Do you know God?
Do you really know God or only know of Him?
Have you met Him?
If not, how do you meet Him and get to know Him?I believe this is how.
You read the Holy Bible. You pray to God that you believe that Jesus is and was God and died for the whole of the world’s sin, including yours. You believe that He rose bodily (as a real human) from the dead and ascended to heaven and is at His Father’s side in Heaven now. You believe that He is the Lord of your life. This means that you believe that God is right and you have turned away from habitually sinning. You believe you are forgiven totally and completely and NOTHING you do can (apart from renouncing your belief in God) separate you from His forgiveness. If you have done these things, then you can truly call yourself a Christian. You are a child of God and your journey with Him as friends has BEGUN. You can get to know Him. Being a Christian is more than just a prayer of salvation though, there is so much more to it.
You need to explore your new life in Christ. You have been given a new spirit and through it the Holy Spirit (the third person of the triune God) can communicate with you and direct you as you travel through life to do the will of God. As you journey through life: praying without ceasing, with thanksgiving and supplications (and sitting quietly in His presence, listening); reading the bible; and serving others as though they are Jesus, you will get to know God more and more. You will become more Christlike and you will want to share the Good News with others.
So instead of knowing about God (even the demons know about God) you KNOW Him and believe in Him for everything in your life. So if someone asks you “Do you know God?” you can answer with confidence, “Yes.” Then ask, “Do you?” You’ll be surprised where God will take you.
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Distracted
Our Daily Bread Devotional from yesterday seems to summarise exactly how things are at the moment!
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Martha was distracted with much serving. —Luke 10:40
The university where I teach as an adjunct professor provides laptop computers for its students. While this can be an aid to the students in many ways, I have discovered one way it hinders learning: The laptops can become a distraction during class.
Because the students take notes on their laptops, they have them open on their desks during class. The problem is that they find texting their friends, visiting Facebook, or checking things on the Internet more interesting than my lectures.
A laptop loses value in the learning environment if it becomes a distraction—even if what the students are doing is positive.
Good things can do that. Things that have value can draw our attention away from what we should be paying attention to. This was true for Martha. Luke 10:40 says she was “distracted with much serving,” which took her away from spending time with Jesus. In the same way, a good hobby can have value in and of itself. But if it distracts you from your family responsibilities or relationship with God, some changes are needed.
Are life’s good options distracting you from what your primary priorities should be? Return, as Jesus told Martha, to what “is needed.” — Dave Branon
A Prayer: Help me, Lord, to make and to keep right priorities. To put You and time with You first. Give me discernment and the willingness to obey You today. Amen.
We were created to glorify God.
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God Is The One We Should Please.
This is a devotional written for children, but the message is the same to all of us.
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:6-9)
“Say ‘Mama,’ Stella. ‘Mama!’”
“No, Stella. You can say ‘Daddy,’ better, can’t you! Say ‘Daddy’!”
Jimmy laughed at the expression on his baby sister’s face as she looked back and forth from her mom to her dad. “You guys are going to confuse her!” Jimmy said to his parents. “Stella’s going to come out with something like ‘Dama’ or ‘Maddy’ if you both keep saying your names!”
Dad laughed, too. “You’re right, Jimmy. We probably ought to give her little brain a little break. We don’t want to make her dizzy just trying to make one of us happy.”
“True,” said Mom. “Besides, she doesn’t really have to say our names to please us. Both of us will love her whether she says our names or not!” Then Mom grinned. “But she’s going to say ‘Mama’ first!”
Do you ever get the feeling that there are too many people to please? Your siblings want you to share with them. Your friends want you to play with them. Your parents expect you to behave a certain way. Your teachers assign you projects and want you to listen in class. You might have chores to do and family to visit and pets to take care of. Have you ever thought about how many “rules” there are just for good manners? Saying “please,” saying “thank you,” holding a certain fork a certain way, chewing with your mouth closed, and the list goes on! Sometimes keeping track of all you have to do and say can become very overwhelming!
Colossians 2:6-9 says that if our trust is in Christ Jesus the Lord, we ought to walk in a way that pleases Him. It says that all kinds of people have all kinds of opinions, and you might meet people who will try to spoil (ruin) you with their godless opinions and worthless ideas. But we ought to be rooted in Christ, living to please Him. This passage says that Christ is the fulness of the Godhead bodily, which means that Christ is God! He is the Creator. He is the Redeemer. He is the highest Authority, and all other authorities (like your parents and teachers) were put in their positions by Him! Christ is God. If your goal in life is to please God above everyone else, then you will be obeying His Word. You can be sure that you will be doing what you ought to be doing!
Did you ever think about how God is really the only One we have to think about pleasing? Yes – of course – it is good to practice good manners and be concerned about other people. But ultimately, if we are growing in the knowledge of God’s Son and walking worthy of Christ – then we can trust that we are living in a way that pleases Him. And God is the most important One to please. If we please God, we will usually make our parents and other people happy automatically.
God is the main One we have to be concerned about pleasing.
My Response:
» Is my life pleasing God right now?
» How can I show I am more concerned about pleasing God than about pleasing others?This devotion and more can be found at http://devos.kids4truth.com
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Operation Christmas Child – put a smile on a child’s face this Christmas.
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This song tells it like it is.
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