Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Day 1 - Week 24 - The weeks sure go by fast, don't they!

I can't believe it's Tuesday once again...the weeks seem to fly by!  Even when we're in the middle of the hottest summer in recordable history!  Usually I hate to see summer leave, but this year I will be most grateful for fall's arrival!

Let's go through our verses and then we'll find out which verse of assurance we will add this week....

Romans Road to Salvation
Romans 3:23  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Romans 5:8    But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 10:9  If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 12:1  Therefore, dear brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.  This is your spiritual worship.

The Gift of Scripture
2 Timothy 3:16  All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correction, for training in righteousness.
Joshua 1:8   This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth, you are to recite it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it.  For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.
Psalm 119:11  I have treasured your words in my heart so that I may not sin against You.
Deuteronomy 6:4-6  Listen O Israel: The Lord your God, the Lord is One.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.  These words I am giving to you today are to be in your heart.
Deuteronmy 6:7  Repeat them to your children.  Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Hebrews 4:12  The Word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as to divide soul, spirit, joints and marrow.  It is a judge of  the ideas and thoughts of the heart.

The Gift of Prayer
Hebrews 4:16 Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.
1 John 5:14  Now this the confidence we have before Him, whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
1 John 5:15  And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for.

The Gift of  God's Assurance
1 John 5:11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
1 John 5:12-13  The one who has the Son has life, the one who doesn't have the Son of God, does not have life.  I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know you have eternal life. 
John 14:1  Your heart must not be troubled.  Believe in God, believe also in Me.
John 14:2  In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  (KJV)
John 14:3  And if I go to prepare a place for you, I wiill come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am, you may be also.

Oh my - sometimes I am just overwhelmed with the peace that God desires for us.  He has given us so many words of promise and comfort, and so often we just let these words glide by and not stay in our hearts.  Hear what He is saying...He loves us!  He has gone through so many preparations in order to bring us home to Him so that we can have the most wonderful life beyond our imagination. 

The news of the day can be troubling (and it was today as we saw the stock market take another tumble!), but we have an absolute assurance that our lives consist of so much more than the dollars that we may have put away, or the futures we may have had planned here on earth.  We can know that the God of the universe has much bigger plans for our eternal souls.  He is preparing a place for us!  Isn't that just about mind boggling?

He wants us with Him and He has made the perfect way to ensure that we find our way to Him...He sent His Son to tell us and to give us life...the perfect lead-in to this week's verse,
John 14:6, "Jesus told him, 'I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"
Thomas a' Kempis (c. 1380 – 25 July 1471), a late Medieval Catholic monk and the probable author of The Imitation of Christ, which is one of the best and oldest Christian books on devotion,.said, "Without the way, there is no going; without the truth, there is no knowing; without the life, there is no livng."

I love that...isn't it amazing that a Christian brother of over 600 years ago can share his words of faith with us today!

1 comment:

donna said...

I am ready for the summer's heat to end also. And the financial strength of our country seems to be deteriorating. Our faith in Jesus Christ is the only thing that won't change. His love and His promise of eternal life is our only hope for living. We follow Him and know we will have a life without all of the troubles we face on earth. Christ is the only way and the only truth in our lives. We have covered so many meaningful verses. I didn't realize so much time has passed, and yet each day I spend a wonderful time of discovering God's Love. God's Love is the only constant thing in our lives - and from the beginning of time until the end of time.