The Lord works in so many ways, but we have to be aware of his work and pay attention to his Word. I encourage everyone to read and study the Bible. For newcomers, start in the New Testament with the first book of Matthew, and follow through to the last book, Revelation. I then encourage you to read the Old Testament.The two testaments are dependent upon each other and will give you greater depth in understanding God's Word.

 There are many versions of the Bible that include essentially literal and dynamic equivalent translations. If you are interested in the essentially literal translation, the New King James Version, (NKJV) gives us the Greek words in English but in readable English order. The literal versions try to align translations in English from the Hebrew and Greek translations. For conveying the overall meaning of a passage, the dynamic equivalent is used. When I started to study the Bible, I used the New Living Translation (NLT) study Bible because it was a readable form of contemporary English. Later, I got a couple of essentially literal translations. One was the Holman Christian Standard Version (HCSV) and the other, which I mostly use, is the English Standard Version (ESV). Either way, I suggest that you get a study Bible because if you are unclear about the meaning, the footnotes will help greatly.

Here is an example of literal vs. dynamic equivalent

Proverbs:3:1-2
NKJV

My son, do not forget my law,
But let your heart keep my commands;
2 For length of days and long life
And peace they will add to you.

NLT:

My child,[a] never forget the things I have taught you.
    Store my commands in your heart.
2 If you do this, you will live many years,
    and your life will be satisfying.

God's Valentine, from Ginger

“God’s Valentine”

During winter I miss seeing God’s “love messages” along my daily walks.

It is too early to see the heart-shaped red bud and grape leaves, as well as the bleeding heart blossoms. But photos from past seasons revive my spirit in winter. It is also a good season to stay warm indoors reading God’s Word, wrapped in His love

. 

 John the Beloved wrote, God is love. These three short words were so important that he repeated them a few lines later. Then John followed them with…We love, because He first loved us (1 John 4:8,16,19). He wanted everyone to know true love comes from God and is all about Him.

We often can feel the warm light of God's love that surpasses human understanding - but sometimes, "stuff happens" that casts a shadow.

 Recently I had a disturbing dream where I was caught in a judgmental meeting and couldn’t escape. Long before dawn, I woke in distress, not only from the dream but also recent circumstances. Arising and going to my prayer journal, I poured my frustrated feelings onto page after page. I knew how I should feel – blessed with all my needs supplied by God – but I also confessed I did not feel peace and comfort. I opened my Bible to a passage that included: our God is near us whenever we pray to Him (Deuteronomy 4:7). Tears clouded my vision. As I grabbed a tissue, I glanced out the window.

In the dark sky above the trees, I saw a sliver of the moon. Wiping my eyes, I focused on it. I could not see the whole moon, but I knew it was there.

Looking back at my desk, I opened Jesus Calling. “Stay in continual communication with Me, so that you can live above your circumstances. …Present your requests to Me with thanksgiving, and My Peace, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your heart and mind.” Without condemning me, the reassuring words confirmed I was on the right path.

When daylight finally came, I still could only see a sliver of the moon. Suddenly a thought flashed through my mind. It was not my fault that I couldn't see the full moon. Earth was keeping me from it. I just had to be patient.

Turning again to my desk, I read another passage. Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow (James 1:17). Dr. David Jeremiah had written, “We thank Him for the sunrise, for the air we breathe and the friends we love, for the verses we study and the strength we derive from Him. We learn to count our blessings, minimize our complaints, rejoice in the Lord, and obey the words of Jesus: Be of good cheer.”

In the dark, I had risen from my bed in distress. Now in His light, I arose from my chair with joy. God hears our prayers, speaks to our hearts, and responds to our needs because He loves us. With Him, there is no better way to start the day, even when we can only see a sliver—at the moment.

…faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

We Believe

Christians believe in God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit in One God:

•  Psalm 19:1-- The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands

• 1 Timothy 2:5 5-- For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 

•  Acts 2:38 38-- Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."  

Christians believe the Bible is the true word of God:

• 2 Timothy 3:16 16-- All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

• 2 Peter 1:19-21--19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

We believe that God sent his Son, Jesus to pay our sin debt:

• Galatians 2:20--20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
• Colossians 2: 13--13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[a] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

Merry Blessed Christmas!

Luke 2:10-11 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord." Our Lord Jesus Christ was born to ransom us from our sins. In his journey toward that end, he taught us about love, compassion, and empathy--but most importantly, about love. He died for our sins so we might live. John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." 1 John 3:16 "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." From this Christmas season forward, let us confess our sins to God, repent, and grow in faith in the work of what our Lord, Jesus Christ did for us on the cross and let us make the special effort for kindness and compassion for all: Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Merry Christmas!

I lost track of time...

I did. I try to post once a month, but in all the business of business, I overlooked our lesson or thoughts in the Lord for the month of October. First I want to confess to the Lord my thoughtlessness and neglect to Him for not keeping up this blog.. There are so many things I do on a daily basis that excludes God from my mind. While I set aside time to pray, talk, and share with the Lord on a daily basis, sometimes the jobs I should be doing for the Lord get overlooked. Anne Graham Lotz puts it clearly of how we should repent to our Father, Creator, and Messiah: (I repent of) "Robbing God: Exercising my gifts or spending time, money or energy on things that have a selfish goal, without asking God first." And, I would like to add, without thinking of God first. Too often I get caught up in what I want to do rather than looking to God first and at least inquiring if it is in his will. Sometimes that is a difficult task. After all, it seems like a good idea at the time and so I go blithely ahead with my plans...neglecting my God. And that is what I did in the month of September. I got caught up in my own world of work. I am sorry. I am sorry to neglect you Father. You, who have taken such great care of me, my family, my animals, my interests. You, who are always with me...I am so sorry I have not always been with you. I know that you will never let go of my hand even though I let go of yours. I am grateful you love me and forgive me. I humbly thank you in Jesus' name.

Fill in the Blanks...

Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Rev. Billy Graham, has has been asking thousands of people across the nation to answer her call to prayer warning the end times are near. This prayer in particular is provoking. AN URGENT CALL TO PRAYER: DAY ONE Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive all POWER "I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice He judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on His head are many crowns…on His robe and on His thigh He has this name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords." -- Revelation 19:11-12, 16 We worship You, Lord Jesus Christ, as the Lamb who was slain, but who is now enthroned at the center of the Universe as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, soon to return in power and glory. You are Jesus, who calmed the stormy seas with just a word. You turned water into wine. You created sight in a man born blind. You raised the dead. You are the same One who set the boundaries for the oceans. The same One who hung the stars in space and calls them all by name. The same One who strides the winds of the earth so that the clouds are the dust of Your feet. I worship You as ___________ We repent of complaining as we wring our hands in despair, thinking our nation and our world are falling apart when they are really falling into place—right at Your feet. We repent of striving to control our own destiny, or our church’s ministry, or our nation’s priorities so that they conform to our standards and agenda. We repent of caring more about what our neighbor says, than what You say; of being more afraid of what our employer or government official thinks, than what You think; of grasping earthly position to gain earthly power. We repent of being so intimidated by the opinions of others that we are silent and do not boldly proclaim who You are. I repent of ___________ We choose to surrender our lives to Your power and authority, in utter moment-by-moment dependence on your moment-by-moment control. I choose now to ____________ We ask that You would manifest Your power in such a way that we, Your people, would stop pointing our finger at others, and instead fall on our faces in repentance of our own sin; that the church would wake up in its relationship with You and wake up to the urgency of the times in which we live; and that our nation’s attention would once again be so fixed on You that it would return to the faith of our founding fathers. We ask that Your power would permeate our lives, our churches and our nation; that in the light of Your presence, evil spirits would flee; that Your strong arm would protect us from the encroaching evil and deliver us. I humbly ask that _____________ FOR YOUR GLORY, AMENAnn

Why Jesus?

Let’s start with the assumption that there is a God. (Whether you believe in God or not, for the sake of my argument, let’s just say there is a God.) God is without sin because he is perfect, holy, and pure. Because he is perfect in righteousness and goodness he can’t be involved with any kind of sin—whether a white lie, or murder. So, how could he have a relationship with his people if they were sinful? Well, in the Old Testament he set up a way for people to be forgiven their sins on a temporary basis—through animal, grain, and drink sacrifices. These sacrifices had to be the best animals without imperfections, the finest grains and drinks. Nothing less would be accepted. After all, these were sacrifices from the people of things that were very important to them. This was their way of repenting their sins to God. (God hated the pagan practice of human sacrifice.) But God being all knowing had a better plan for mankind. They couldn’t go on sacrificing forever. It was only a temporary fix. So the only way forgiveness of sins would work is that he had to make it work—not the people through sacrifices. And here is the beauty of his logic. He needed the perfect sacrifice, one that would take care of sins on a forever, not temporary basis. So God , who is perfect and without sin, became human through Jesus, calling him his Son. Jesus, was man and God, but had the same attributes of man. He could be tempted, be hungry, sad, angry, thirsty, tired and feel pain. Jesus could empathize with man’s state. So what did God do? He sacrificed Son—Jesus-- the perfect unblemished “sacrificial lamb”. Here is the second part of his logic that is so compelling. Jesus would only die once. Thus, that one act would cover the sins of those people who believed in Jesus’ sacrifice of himself for their sins. This one act would cover their sins—forever. It was not a temporary fix. God knows, as we know, we will always be sinning one way or another, but if we recognize these sins, confess and ask for forgiveness, they are covered through Jesus. Jesus, being God rose from the dead to show his divinity. It’s brilliant. There’s so much more to say, but I’ll just talk about one last thing. The Bible—because that’s where our information comes from. The Old Testament: Content grew and was gathered from ancient prophets. Much was aligned with historicity of those times. The Jews historically have collected writings, traditions from OT writers and it reflects their history. The Ten Commandments were some of the earliest writings of the OT. Archeological findings like the Dead Sea Scrolls (i.e. the Book of Isaiah) have been unearthed. Jesus as well as writers of the New Testament often referred to OT Scripture. After about 435 BC there were no more additions to the OT. It originally was translated into Greek. New Testament: Five principals were used to evaluate the writings: Is it authoritative, is it prophetic, is it authentic, is it dynamic? Do the writings portray the integral part of the history of redemption? NT historicity aligns with those ancient times. The writers of the books often had personal testimony of authenticity from the writers of other books in the NT. In some cases, when an author is not known, such as the book of Hebrews, the words are self-attesting.