Verse of the Day

Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. Matthew 5:37

This is a bit late today because I have been traveling, but I wanted to update since I had a moment. This verse was referenced in the church service yesterday, and it really struck a cord with me. Too many people today just don't feel the need to be honest or to keep there word, when Jesus calls us to do both. Always keep in mind that if you say you are going to do something, it's giving your word, and God calls us to keep our word. Remember, there is power in keeping your promises, and if you say you will, it's a promise, even if you don't say the words "I promise".

Verse of the Day

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. James 1:5

Well, this verse is applicable to me, even if it's not applicable to anyone else. Often times I find myself praying for God's wisdom because I really desire to do his will in my life, and the only way to truly understand his will is to read the word and pray. When I have decisions to make, I sincerely desire to make wise decisions, so I pray often that the Lord will give me wisdom.

Verse of the Day

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12

One of the definitions of "to follow" is below:
To accept the guidance, command, or leadership of

To follow someone really means to give up control. That is a hard thing to do. One of the things I have discovered in my spiritual growth is that the more I control my life, the more I mess it up. As a matter of fact, I am really good at screwing up my life when I am in control of it. However, it took me a long time, a lot of heartache and tears, and some very painful steps before I actually came to my senses and gave God control of my life. I am not saying that I don't struggle with that (daily, I have the struggle), but everyday I try to remember to pray in the am that today my life is Yours, Lord, I surrender my day and my thoughts to You. By making it a daily ritual, filled with sincere meaning, I have experienced spiritual growth. Giving up control may seem difficult, but once it's done you will wonder "why did I takes so long?".

Verse of the Day

28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:28-31

I know, I know, this is more than one verse; however, they go so well together.lol Really, sometimes life is just a "perspective thing". By that I mean that it's all in our attitude, or the way we perceive situations, that affects our ability to either just exist, or to "grab life by the horns". Always keep in mind that the Lord is, was and will forever be our Creator. He will not ever grow weak or weary, and when we feel down, weary and are experiencing struggles, we can lean on him. Through his power, grace and might we can "soar on wings like eagles". His love for us, what he did for us by sending his son Jesus Christ, is really unfathomable; however, this love also gives us abilities far beyond our means if we just trust in Him.

Verse of the Day

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

I know that when I face really challenging trials, trials which can literally bring me to my knees, I always cry out to God for help, strength and peace. However, God has blessed me with good friends that will also help me. What I try to remember when I am going through tough times is that I believe God's word, which tells me that I will not be given more than I can handle. I also know that everything happens for a reason, and that the pain of today can be used to for healing tomorrow. No matter what struggles you are facing today, understand and believe that it will pass, and the lessons learned will enable you to help someone in the future if you allow yourself to be used by the Lord.

Verse of the Day

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. Romans 12:12

Trouble seems to come in waves at times, and other times seem to be just blessed (no better way to describe it). During times of trouble, we can often lose perspective of what's most important...our relationship with the Lord. It's during times of trouble that our faith is often tested. Especially at those times we need to pray diligently, be patient and have confidence in the Lord. If we do those things, we will have peace despite the "storms of life" that we are going through.

Verse of the Day

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Phillipians 4:6-7

Life can be so "messed up" in today's world. Good people do bad things all the time, and each wrong or hurt can make us a little more "jaded". The one thing I have discovered is that prayer helps any situation. Fellowship with other believers and their prayers is very effective in helping us overcome what life throws at us. God never said being a Christian would be easy. As a matter of fact Jesus states just the opposite. However, what we have to realize is that we are accountable for our own thoughts and actions. When fear, bitterness, anger, doubt, etc. start to cloud our hearts that affects our thoughts. We must seek God in prayer and petition daily. He wants us to discuss even the small details with him. Today, seek God's peace by surrendering your thoughts to the Lord.

Verse of the Day

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
Romans 8:26

In all things seek guidance from the Holy Spirit. That is what the Holy Spirit is there for. When we "give up control" of our lives and truly seek the guidance of the Spirit, intercession always happens. Today, pray for the Spirit to guide you. Then, just sit back and enjoy the ride. The Spirit communicates with the Father in ways that we cannot even express.

Verse of the Day

14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Ephesians 6:14-18

As you grow in your spiritual walk with the Lord and strive to become more in tune with his will for your life, you will experience spiritual attacks. It happens time and again in the Bible...it even happened to Jesus, so why would we think we would be exempt from such attacks? However, there are spiritual weapons that we can use to combat the enemy. Stand fast in the word, have faith and pray. Call upon the Lord for the blood protection and you will receive it.

Verse of the Day

From the fruit of his mouth a man's stomach is filled; with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied. Proverbs 18:21

I have also seen this verse written as "Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit – you choose."

How true is this verse? With our words we have such power. We also have choices with what to do with that power. My choice is to try to lift people up and encourage them. Today, what will your choice be?

Prayer Requests

If you have any prayer requests this week, feel free to post and I will pray for you. I am in my third week of training for project work at my job, so pray for me.

Sandy

Verse of the Day

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Isaiah 26:3

Perfect peace. While that may seem unattainable, it truly is possible. I believe the word of God. The Bible does not lie. If we truly trust in God, and give all things to Him (basically lay them at the cross), then we can have peace no matter what "storms" we are going through in life. We can have peace and joy not matter what because God's word says so. We just have to give everything to him. God is awesome...word's cannot describe His love for us, and if we live according to the guidelines He has given us, then life can be better than we could ever imagine. Today, whatever is troubling you, give it to God. Just let go of the steering wheel, and give him control.

Verse of the Day

A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. Luke 6:40

First off, thanks for sharing, Mike. This is a great verse...hopefully, like many teachings in the Bible; we can gain some perspective from this verse.

I am going to take a different spin on this verse, and talk about the author briefly. I knew a little about Luke, and was prompted to do some more research after Mike shared this verse.

Luke was probably the most educated of the original 12. He was a physician. Direct translations of some of his descriptive writing will err to the technical, analytical descriptions. He was also cultured and "well traveled". Perhaps it was his medical training...Luke was very empathetic.

He was a Gentile. As a matter of fact he was the only Gentile author in the New Testament. He wrote Luke and Acts. He was a very good, loyal friend to Paul, whom Paul loved.

He realized the importance that Christ placed on women and children, during an era where both were minimalized. He mentioned women that were not mentioned anywhere else in the gospels.

I digressed. Back to the verse. Luke's teacher, of course, was Jesus Christ. He realized that although the student would never be above his teacher that a good student would strive to learn as much as he/she could from the teacher and emulate the teacher to become like him/her (in Luke's case to become like Christ). The word is God's way to teach us, and although we can never even hope to be close to God, we can use the word as guidelines to become more Christ-like on a daily basis.

Verse of the Day

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1:21

When we truly know God, we have the realization that we must be grateful for all things in life, and count all things as blessings. Even during difficult times we must keep our thoughts Christ centered so that we have that focus, which keeps us grounded. Difficult times are meant to strengthen us and help us to grow, and good times are blessings. We need to be thankful and joyful for both.

Verse of the Day

Yet, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our Potter, and we all are the work of Your hand. Isaiah 64:8

On days like today, when it's almost mid April, Easter has passed, it's spring, and daylight savings time has already happened, it's really easy to want to experience supreme frustation at the snow on the ground, and the traffic, and...lol However, I was listening to music on my way to work, and one of the songs mentioned you are the Potter, I am the clay (or something to that effect). It gave me a calm, and I just had to say "Lord, no matter what comes my way, I want you to mold me into who you want me to be. Let my thoughts be overcome with your thoughts, my ways be your will, my life yours". No matter what, it's always better to try to keep God the perspective of our thoughts and actions.

Verse of the Day

The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense. Proverbs 27:9

When we actually get truly, caring advice from Christian friends, it can often be the Lord speaking to us through them. If the friend is indeed true, then their advice can often be "just what the doctor ordered".

Prayer requests week of 4/9/07

Like all weeks I have a post here for prayer requests. If you have any you want to share, post and I will pray. God Bless, and have a safe week! :)

Verse of the Day

Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from thy law. Psalm 119:18

Psalm 119 (for those of you who have not read it) is the longest chapter in the Bible. 176 verses to be exact. This particular verse gives us excellent advice. However, in order for us to truly know His law, and truly have our eyes opened, we must spend time in the word. Daily time reading the word, even if it's only a verse or two, does "open our eyes". Today, may your eyes be opened to the wonders of God and the blessings that will come your way if you obey his will.

Happy Easter

⁴⁶ He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷ and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Luke 24:46-27

How appropriate to remember that today we serve a risen Savior. Jesus willingly died for our sins so that we could have forgiveness. How awesome is that?

Verse of the day

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1Peter 2:24

Jesus died for our sins, so that we could be saved. We just have to accept the wonderful salvation that the Lord has given us. However, born again does not mean that we continue to live the same life. Born again means that we truly try to live Christ-like lives. We must strive to live for righteousness...truly, why would we not try to exemplify Christ in our lives after all that he did for us? Happy Easter, everyone, and God Bless!

Verse of the day

44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last. Luke 23:44-46

Easter is approaching, and I have to reflect on the awesome love that the Father has for us through sending his son, Jesus Christ. I have to reflect on the awesome love the Son has for us in going to the cross for us, and the fact that he died for our sins. He would have died for just one of us had there only been one who needed salvation. Today, understand that the sacrifice of the Son of God can save you and free you in a way that cannot be explained. Take a moment to reflect on that awesome love.

Verse of the day

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29

Whew...how hard is it to live this verse? Often times we get angry, are having a bad day, etc., and unwholesome is not the word for what comes out of our mouths. Trust me, I have had to look in the mirror with honesty and make amends for many things that I have said that have brought people down. What we have to remember is that we have to answer for our actions, not anyone else's. So, even when someone may "deserve" what we have to say, we are called to say things in a nice, truthful, respectful manner, not with rancor, bitterness or anger. Hard, yes. A daily struggle, yes. But with prayer and perserverance we can improve daily.

'But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,' declares the LORD, 'because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.' Jeremiah 30:17

It's amazing the healing that can be found in the Lord if we just trust in Him and put our lives in His hands. When we feel as though we are outcasts, as if no one can understand the pain that we are facing or going through, we must remember that the Lord loves us and wants to help us, we just have to take the steps of putting our faith and trust in him...only then can we be fully healed.

Weekly Prayer Requests

Well, last week was a busy week with my travel schedule, so unfortunately I was not able to update my blog. However, it's a new week, and as always if you have any prayer requests please let me know so that I can pray for you. Have a great week!

Verse of the day

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Isaiah 55:7

True peace can only come from Jesus. Sometimes life deals such blows that peace appears to be elusive, like try to catch mist off a river bank in the south during a warm summer morning. However, at those times the focus of our lives must be on Christ. Through him, and only him, we can find that "peace that passes understanding".