My 12 Favorite Scriptures Pt 2

"But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." (Acts 26:16-18 ESV)

Saul (later called Paul) was on his way to Damascus to persecute followers of Jesus Christ when Jesus Christ visited him via a bright light from heaven. The Lord confronted him with what he was doing wrong and then he called him to be a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For what Jesus called him to do is what the gospel of our salvation is all about. It is about changed lives. It is about us being crucified with Christ in death to sin and us being raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him.

I was a very fearful child because I was raised by a severely abusive father. And then I faced abuse from other people in my life, some of them pastors of churches who were also people in positions of authority over me. And so throughout my life the Lord had to give me such messages as “Get up and stand on your feet” and “I have appointed you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me,” and “Do not be afraid of them.” And the Lord took me through a lot to bring me to where I am now.

It was kind of like the message he gave to Jeremiah when he told him not to be afraid but that the Lord was sending him to speak the words of the Lord to the people (Jeremiah 1:1-19). All throughout the Scriptures we read these words, “Do not fear.” For Satan wants us to be afraid because he wants to stop us from doing the will of God. But we must not fear other humans or what they might do to us or say about us, but we must walk in the fear of the Lord in obedience to him and to doing his will for our lives.

Do Not Fear  

An Original Work / June 2, 2013  

Based off John 14

Do not let your hearts fear.

Trust in God. Trust in Christ.

“In My house you will find

Many rooms I have

Prepared for you,

And I will come back

And take you to heav’n.”

“I will take you to be with Me;

You’ll be where I am.”

“I am the way and 

The truth and the life. 

No one comes to the Father,

Except he comes through Me,

So put your faith in Me,

And do all of what I command.”

“Whoever has My commands

And obeys them loves Me.”

“I did not leave you as orphans.

I sent you the Counselor;

The Holy Spirit to live in you.

He teaches you all things,

And He reminds you of Me.”

“My peace I give to you,

So do not fear, trust in Me.”

https://vimeo.com/116484386

My 12 Favorite Scriptures Pt 2

Video Talk

November 21, 2022

https://youtu.be/-trkVEyHDjs 

Caution: This link may contain ads

I Say, "Goodnight"

I say, “Goodnight,” I say, “Goodbye,”

I say, “Hello,” now don’t you cry,

For life is short in many ways,

We do not know how many days.

For time is ticking, ticking by,

We do not know when we will die,

It could be soon, it could be late,

For we know not the final date.

For we are born and then we live,

In life we’ll be put through a sieve,

A time of testing, sure to come,

A time to test us one by one.

So don’t be late to enter in, 

Believe in Jesus, sins forgiven,

Forsake your sins and follow Christ,

Obey His word, give Him your life.

An Original Work / July 5, 2023 

My 12 Favorite Scriptures Pt 1

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:7-9 NIV)

Nine years ago I happened to see on the internet some pictures of Scripture quilts that people had made. And it was at that time that I felt impressed to have one made for myself. Now a woman who used to babysit my children back in the early 1980’s, when she was a teenager, was someone I knew who made quilts, so I hired her to make me a Scripture quilt. 

I gave her the colors I wanted and the pattern I wanted for the squares, which were not the Scripture squares, and she put it all together in a design which had the patterned squares in the shape of a cross surrounded by the Scripture squares. And since Jesus is “the Word,” what I saw in the finished product was the gospel with the Word on the cross.

Anyway, since March of 2020, I think it was, the Lord had been having me do Video Talks where I share Scriptures, and then what the Lord is teaching me through them. And so this one day, as I was praying about the next video talk, the Lord impressed it on my heart to use the 12 Scriptures on my Scripture quilt in 12 consecutive video talks. So this one is No. 1 of the 12.

[Now I am a human being and subject to failure, and I did the math later on and realized that there are 24 Scripture squares, and not 12, for the record.]

In this video I talk about what it is like to be a person who is fearful and timid and how the Lord helped me to overcome my fears and to trust him fully with my circumstances and with the people in my life, and how he can help you overcome your fears so that you can be used of him in the way he had planned for you from before the creation of the world.

But the key to overcoming fear and to being used of the Lord in the way he has planned for us is that we must be careful to obey the Word of the Lord and to do what his Word teaches us Christians we must do. And then we can be strong and courageous and not fearful. And we can overcome any discouragement, for the Lord will be with us wherever we go.

Give Me Courage, Lord

An Original Work / November 13, 2013

Based off Various Scriptures

Do not let your hearts grow weary,

For your work will be rewarded.

Be strong; let your hearts take courage.

Do not fear but wait on Jesus.

Be strong and very courageous,

For your God will go before you.

Do not fear. He will not leave you.

Wait for Him. He’ll not forsake you.

Be careful to do what He says.

Do not turn away from your Lord.

Take courage! You’ll be His witness,

For God will guide and protect you.

So we are always encouraged.

We walk by faith and not vision.

We make it our aim to please Him, 

So in Christ, we glorify Him. 

https://vimeo.com/113503727

My 12 Favorite Scriptures Pt 1

Video Talk

November 20, 2022

https://youtu.be/H73T53i8poc

Caution: This link may contain ads 

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

“Hear ye, hear ye, listen to Me.

Will you hear Me, hear Me truly?

Will you hasten to obey Me?

Obey freely, obey daily.”

Will you call on Jesus, Savior?

He wants to grant you a favor.

Died to save you from addiction,

Lives to give you life and vision.

Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins

Our salvation for us He wins.

Die to sin and live forever.

Follow Jesus, your endeavor. 

Give your life to Him in service.

Don’t be bashful, don’t be nervous.

Full surrender, not withholding,

Your Messiah now beholding.

An Original Work / July 11, 2023

Listen to God and Eat What is Good

“Come, everyone who thirsts,

    come to the waters;

and he who has no money,

    come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

    without money and without price.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

    and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,

    and delight yourselves in rich food.

Incline your ear, and come to me;

    hear, that your soul may live;

and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

    my steadfast, sure love for David.” (Isaiah 55:1-3 ESV)

Whenever I read this passage of Scripture in Isaiah 55, it reminds me of Jesus’ words to the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:18-19:

“I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent” (in context, read Revelation 3:14-22).

So, what does it all mean? For this is speaking largely figuratively and not of literal food and drink and garments and salve, etc. What is the spiritual condition of the people in Isaiah’s passage? In the passage in Revelation? And how can we apply these messages to our lives and to the church and to the world today? How can we relate the times in which we now live to the messages God was giving to the people through Isaiah and through John?

In both cases these messages were spoken to people who professed to be of God, to be his people, but who were not living up to God’s standard of righteousness. So God was calling them to repentance, to have a change of mind and heart and behavior consistent with one who is following Jesus Christ with his life. This was a call to leave their fleshly lives behind them and to now live holy and morally pure and upright lives for the glory and praise of God and for genuine salvation from sin and eternal life with God.

In our world and church today this would be speaking of people who give lip service to God only but who do not follow him in walks of obedience to his commands and in holy living. Or they may be those of genuine faith in the Lord who have wandered from the truth, or who have fallen back into sin, or who have become spiritually lazy and slothful and nonchalant about their relationships with the Lord and their walks of faith and obedience to him. So they need a fire lit under them to bring back that passion for the Lord.

This is a call to full surrender of our lives to Jesus Christ, to walk in his ways and in his truth and righteousness, and to leave our lives of sin behind us. And this is a call to walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands and to no longer walk in sin or to play with sin, gambling that God will still let us into his heaven even if we live for the flesh and walk in sin and ignore him and his commands. And we need to take this to heart, for if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to God, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

We, as God’s holy people, are to be those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and holiness, and who long for the Word of the Lord that we may walk in his truth. We are to be diligent in persevering in our walks of faith and obedience to our Lord and to not be slothful and nonchalant. Our lives are to be committed to walks of obedience to our Lord and to no longer walking in sin, and to letting the Holy Spirit lead us each day in his truth and in what our Lord would have us do in service to him for his purposes.

We should be passionate about God’s word and about obeying our Lord and about living the truth of the gospel and about sharing that truth with others so that they can come to know him, too. And that truth is that Jesus died and was raised from the dead that we might die to sin daily and walk in obedience to his commands in holy living. That is the essence of the gospel message, but it includes the fact that if obedience to our Lord is not our practice, but if sin is still our practice, we will not enter the kingdom of God.

Now, with regard to the words, “without price” or “without cost,” we should not take these words to mean that there is no cost to us at all if we decide to believe in Jesus Christ and to follow him with our lives. While it is true that Jesus Christ paid the price with his death on that cross for our freedom from sin, it is not true that nothing is expected of us or that there will be no cost to following Jesus with our lives. Can anyone of us come to faith in Jesus Christ of our own accord? No! Only as God the Father draws us to Christ.

But biblical faith in Jesus Christ means to be persuaded of God. And what does God persuade us to do? He persuades us to deny self, die daily to sin, and to follow him in walks of obedience to his commands. For, if we hold on to  our lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity, regardless of what our lips profess. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self (lose our lives), die daily to sin, and follow him in walks of obedience to his commands, by the grace of God, then we have the hope of eternal life with God.

For Jesus and his NT apostles, all throughout the New Testament, told us of the cost of following Jesus with our lives. We will be hated and persecuted as Jesus was hated and persecuted. If truly we are obeying our Lord in doing what he says we are to do, as his followers, and so we are speaking the truth of his word to each other, in love, and we are telling all people that they must die to sin and obey our Lord, we are going to be rejected, cast aside as unwanted, and even killed for our faith.

For the grace of God, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce (say ‘No!’ to) ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we await our Lord’s return. For Jesus Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:8-10)

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Romans 3:23-25; Romans 5:1-2; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 2 Corinthians 6:1-2; 2 Corinthians 9:8; Ephesians 6:24; Hebrews 10:26-31; Hebrews 12:12-17; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 3:4-10]  

My Jesus, My Savior 

 

By Michael W. Smith

My Jesus, My Saviour,

Lord, there is none like you,

All of my days, I want to praise

The wonders of Your mighty love.

My comfort, my shelter, 

Tower of refuge and strength 

Let every breath, all that I am 

Never cease to worship You.

Shout to the Lord, all the earth let us sing, 

Power and majesty, praise to the King!

Mountains bow down and the seas will roar, 

At the sound of your name!

I sing for joy at the work of your hands, 

Forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand 

Nothing compares to the promise I have in You.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqSQvoinDE4 

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Evil People Do Not Understand Justice

Proverbs 28 Select Verses

1 The wicked flee when no one pursues,

    but the righteous are bold as a lion.

4 Those who forsake the law praise the wicked,

    but those who keep the law strive against them.

5 Evil men do not understand justice,

    but those who seek the Lord understand it completely.

6 Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity

    than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.

7 The one who keeps the law is a son with understanding,

    but a companion of gluttons shames his father.

9 If one turns away his ear from hearing the law,

    even his prayer is an abomination.

13 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper,

    but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Since we who believe in Jesus Christ are not under the Old Covenant law, but we are under grace, but which still requires that we obey the commandments of our Lord under the New Covenant, I am going to change the word “law” here to “commands” (of God). For to apply this to our lives today, we must teach it under the New Covenant and not under the Old Covenant. Yet what is taught here is still relevant to our lives today.

When I think of the wicked fleeing when no one pursues, I think of all those who are engaged in private sinful practices which they try to keep hidden from others, especially from their spouses or parents or bosses or employees or citizens of nations, etc. Although no one saw them sin, other than God, perhaps, they still run and hide what they do in hopes that no one will see and that no one will know, so that they can get away with their crimes.

But those who are living righteously, in walks of obedience to the Lord and to his commands (New Covenant), have no reason to hide what they are doing out of fear of getting caught. They are also those who are not afraid of sharing the truth of the gospel with others. They do not fear being hated, rejected, mocked, abandoned, forsaken, and forgotten. It doesn’t mean that they don’t feel sadness or pain over such, but they will not let fear overtake them. For they love other people more than they fear being mistreated.

Now when it says here that those who forsake our Lord’s commandments praise the wicked, what comes to mind is how so many people today have turned the message of the gospel upside down. They have turned God’s grace to us into a free license to continue in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord. And they will give glory to those who are still walking in sin while they will, perhaps, chastise those who are walking righteously, especially if we are teaching the true gospel of salvation and refuting lies.

And when it says here that evil men (women, too) do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely, what comes to mind? How would you define “justice”? It is honesty, uprightness, integrity, fairness, morality, decency, righteousness, and judgment, etc. And it isn’t that evil people don’t understand what honesty and integrity and moral purity are, but they shun it, ignore it, and refuse it, while those who seek after the Lord desire it, and they appreciate it.

So, it is better to be poor with regard to worldly possessions and to live uprightly in honesty, honor, and trustworthiness, than it is to be wealthy and to have many possessions and to be crooked in your ways and in your dealings with others. Integrity is of much greater wealth than anything that this world has to offer us in the way of possessions. And this includes friends, too, i.e. it is better to be a person of integrity and to not have many friends, then to be a liar and a cheat and to have many friends.

So, if we are people of understanding, in the eyes of the Lord, then we are those whose lives are surrendered to Jesus Christ to do his will and who walk in obedience to his commands in holy living. We are not those who habitually and deliberately sin against God and against other humans. We are not companions (partners) with the ungodly who are morally impure and who are lazy gluttons who feed their own flesh rather than care for the needs of others and rather than show love to others.

Many people, though, profess faith in Jesus Christ, but they are living in opposition to his will and purpose for their lives. They are still engaged in deliberate and habitual sin and in feeding their own flesh, but while they will claim that they are in relationship with God, with Jesus Christ, that they believe in him, and that they pray to him, and even that they have times of personal devotions with him. But the Scriptures teach that if we walk in sin, and not in obedience to God, we don't know God, and we will not inherit eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

My Sheep  

An Original Work / June 24, 2012  

Based off John 10:1-30 NIV

My sheep hear me. They know me.

They listen to my voice and obey.

I call them and lead them.

They know my voice, so they follow me.

They will never follow strangers.

They will run away from them.

The voice of a stranger they know not;

They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that

I am the gate, so you enter in.

Whoever does enter

Will find forgiveness and will be saved.

Nonetheless whoever enters

Not by the gate; other way,

He is the thief and a robber.

Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,

Who laid his own life down for the sheep.

I know them. They know me.

They will live with me eternally.

The thief only comes to steal and

Kill and to destroy the church.

I have come to give you life that

You may have it to the full… 

They know my voice, so they follow me.

https://vimeo.com/114938263 

Don't Believe Everything