Tag Archives: Spiritual Growth

We Are Not Going to Hell

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Psalm 16 9-10

I like the Message Version because it is clear and to the point. My ticket to hell has been canceled. It is not my destination.

I’m happy from the inside and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell—that’s not my destination! Psalm 16:9-10 MESS

Why was my ticket to hell canceled? Christ died on the cross to cancel our destination, i.e., hell. The Old Testament dispensation did not allow redemption for our sins. Adam and Eve sinned and were cast out of the Garden of Eden. There were no second chances in the Old Testament. Once guilty, always guilty.

When Christ visited the earth in human form, experienced what we experience and then was crucified, He did so to provide a path of repentance and redemption to righteousness. Forgiveness from God is essential for our relationship with God.

The crucifixion of Christ changed our relationship with God. We were no longer bound by the atrocities of sin that man has committed since the beginning of time. In today’s lexicon, ‘God gave us an out.’ If we are truly remorseful for whatever sin we committed, we can go to God in prayer and ask His forgiveness; we will be washed clean. 1 John 1:9 says,

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Psalm 51 stresses that God can blot out our transgressions and cleanse us from our sin. psalms-51-1-2He can create a new heart in us and renew a steadfast spirit within us. He will not cast us away and will not take the Holy Spirit that dwells in us away. He will, upon praying, restore our joy in His salvation and uphold us in Christ.

The Unforgivable Sin

Psalm 51-3The only unforgivable sin is the sin of rejecting God and refusing His offer of forgiveness and new life in Jesus Christ. This is the only unforgivable sin because it means we are saying that the Holy Spirit’s witness about Jesus is a lie.

And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Luke 12:10

Jesus is God in human form and when we deny Jesus, we are denying God Himself; we limit Him and assume He is unable to save us.

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. John 1:18

The main reason it is serious to reject Christ is that Christ is God’s appointed means of (our) salvation. Our greatest need is to have our sins forgiven; if we don’t, we have no reason to expect God to welcome us into Heaven. But by His death and resurrection, Christ provided the way for us to be forgiven and cleansed of all of our sins.  (What’s the Unforgivable Sin? Billy Graham. Billygraham.org, April 12, 2016)

Psalm 16 IMG_6780 (2)

Praise our God. We are not doomed to go to hell unless we commit the unforgivable sin. Less that, we are not hell bound.

Images – Google Images; LAB Photos
Scriptures – Biblica.org; Biblegateway.com
Resources – Billygraham.org; Biblestudytools.com; Crosswalk.com

Thank you for visiting my Young Christian Warriors site and dailyinspiration-lisasthoughts.com, at the moment there is some duplication. I am working on merging the two to create one great site. Please bear with me through this process.

Jesus Is Always The Same

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Jesus never changes, He is always the same. Throughout the day remember Jesus is always the same. Our relationship with Him is not dependent upon our feelings, expectations, or daily responsibilities.

Just thank Him when you see Him at work, which is all the time. Look for His infusion in all that you do, and in everything around you.

Our Lord lives in us, the atmosphere, and the universe.

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He is the great ‘I AM’.

  1. I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Genesis 17:11
  2. “I am the God of your father, Abraham,” He said. “Do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you. Genesis 26:24
  3. “I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” Exodus 3:14
  4. And God said to Moses, “I am Yahweh—‘the Lord.’ Exodus 6:2
  5. “I am the Lord who heals you.” Exodus 15:26
  6. “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. Exodus 20:2
  7. “I am merciful.” Exodus 22:27
  8. “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.” Exodus 34:6
  9. “If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord.” Leviticus 18:5
  10. “Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.” Psalm 46:10
  11. Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken. Isaiah 28:16
  12. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:10
  13. “I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols.” Isaiah 42:8
  14. I, yes I, am the Lord, and there is no other Savior. First I predicted your rescue, then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world. No foreign god has ever done this. You are witnesses that I am the only God,” says the Lord. Isaiah 43:11-12
  15. “From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done.” Isaiah 43:13
  16. This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer and Creator: “I am the Lord, who made all things. I alone stretched out the heavens. Who was with me when I made the earth?” Isaiah 44:24
  17. “Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me.” Isaiah 46:9
  18. “I, yes I, am the one who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans, who wither like the grass and disappear?” Isaiah 51:12
  19. “I am a God who is near,” says the Lord. “I am also a God who is far away. No one can hide where I cannot see him,” says the Lord. “I fill all of heaven and earth,” says the Lord. Jeremiah 23:23-24
  20. “For I am the Lord! If I say it, it will happen.” Ezekiel 12:25
  21. “I am the Lord, and I do not change.” Malachi 3:6
  22. Jesus answered, “I am. And in the future, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God, the Powerful One, and coming on clouds in the sky.” Mark 14:62
  23. Then Jesus said, “I am He [the Messiah]—I, the one talking to you.” John 4:26
  24. “I am the bread that gives life.” John 6:48
  25. “I am the light of the world. The person who follows me will never live in darkness but will have the light that gives life.” John 8:12
  26. Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I am!” John 8:58
  27. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.” John 10:11
  28. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will have life even if they die. John 11:25
  29. Jesus answered, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me.” John 14:6
  30. “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or believe because of the miracles I have done.” John 14:11
  31. The Lord God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the One who is and was and is coming. I am the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8
  32. “I am the One who lives; I was dead, but look, I am alive forever and ever!” Revelation 1:18
  33. “I am coming soon. Continue strong in your faith so no one will take away your crown.” Revelation 3:111
  34. The One who was sitting on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new!” Then He said, “Write this, because these words are true and can be trusted.” Revelation 21:5
  35. Jesus, the One who says these things are true, says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! Revelation 22:20

He is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow.

Re-Blog – http://www.youngchristianwarriors.com/jesus-is-always-the-same
‭‭Images – YouVersion.Bible.com; LAB Photos
Scriptures – 35 Powerful I am Verses
References/Resources – Deb Wolf, Counting My Blessings.com

Thank you for visiting my Young Christian Warriors site and dailyinspiration-lisasthoughts.com, at the moment there is some duplication. I am working on merging the two to create one great site. Please bear with me through this process.

Thank God For Daily Mercies

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Good Morning,

Thank God, His mercies are renewed everyday. Our actions are covered everyday. We do not have to worry about them piling up and being buried by them. We can repent of the day and know we are forgiven. Keep having good thoughts, and doing positive deeds, and for those moments when thoughts or actions don’t align with Christ, repent, ask for immediate forgiveness.

God’s compassion never fails. Today’s mercies cover this day, and faith that tomorrow’s unseen mercies will be sufficient for that day. Do not carry woes, anxieties, and concerns into the upcoming day. Release them, give them to God through repentance and begin each day believing in new mercies.

In faith we are strong.

Two passages of scripture sum up how God frees us.

  • Lamentation 3:22-23

“Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassion’s  fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:22-23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

  • Matthew 6:34

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Matthew‬ ‭6:34‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Think about these passages as you go through your day. Before I retired I often thought of and recited them to myself, it is freeing and a reminder that God is ever-present, and covers us each and every day. Oh, and yes, I still recite them to myself and will as long as I am alive.

Why Can’t We Forgive Ourselves?

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None of us are perfect. We were born sinners. We made and make mistakes, some worse than others. Why can’t we forgive ourselves and believe we are forgiven? Why can’t we believe we are forgiven? The beauty of being a Christian is that we can repent of our sins, and God will forgive us. Jesus died on the Cross for us. We are born into sin, but unlike those living during the Old Testament dispensation, we will not be doomed to sin for all time. When Jesus died, the new dispensation began. We live under the law of the New Testament, not the Old Testament.

Paul was a Christian hater, he persecuted and murdered Christians, but God forgave him and make him his apostle. Paul referred to himself as the”chief of sinners” because of his wicked ways.

1This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead.  4 Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. 6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ…You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.  13 You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it. 15 But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. 20 I declare before God that what I am writing to you is not a lie. 22 And still, the churches in Christ that are in Judea didn’t know me personally. 23 All they knew was that people were saying, “The one who used to persecute us is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy!” 
Galatians 1:1-24

The things man has done are not revelations to God. He created us before we entered our Mother’s womb. He knew we would be challenged, He knew we would fail.  He knew we would sin. He knew we would kill, steal, destroy, commit atrocities and crimes, yet He loves us so much, He sent His son to live, walk the earth, and then be given over to man to reconcile unforgivable sin. When Christ was crucified, we were forgiven of our sin. Yes, we have a sin nature and must work hard to separate our sinful desires from our being, but there are times and seasons when we fail and live an ungodly life. Thanks to God, we are not destined to remain in those sins for eternity.  He gave us an out. We can repent from the heart, and He will forgive us.

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
1 John 1:9 NLT

Mat 15 with tag

God always planned to rescue us. Can you accept His love for us, despite our wicked past? Despite everything, God wants our repentance to be genuine. The problem is that we have to believe God has forgiven us for everything we did against others and then, this is key – we have to forgive ourselves. 

God wants us to change and leave behind the past. How do we do this? We have to believe if we want God to forgive us. There are rules (precepts) we must follow, and actions we must take to be forgiven.

We must,

  • Believe that God will forgive us
  • Repent of our sins (wicked acts)
  • Forgive ourselves
  • Stop looking back

Forgiveness1

Like Paul, God has a plan for our lives, but if we do not repent for our sins (wickedness), He cannot forgive us.  If we do not ask for His forgiveness (repent) He cannot forgive us. Many of us repent, but do not forgive ourselves or truly believe God will forgive us because we think the sin (wicked acts) was too vile and we are eternally bad. We feel condemned by our own actions. The fact is we are wicked and we are sinners. The degree in which we sin differs from person-to-person. But none-the-less, God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of our wickedness. God saves hardened sinners, murders, and evil people. He gave us free-will to determine how we will live our lives, because of this, He allows us to sink into flagrant wickedness and then redeems us when we recognize our wicked ways and ask for His forgiveness.

Will you take time today to once and for all, acknowledge your sins before God, repent, believe you are forgiven, forgive yourself and walk into the grace and mercy our Lord provides, and walk the path He has designed for you, never looking back?

The reason God does not want us to look back is that when we look back, it opens the door to temptation and our return to our sinful state. My pastor shared with the congregation that we must run from temptation. We can not stand and engage it on any level if we do, we will lose. We must do as Forrest Grump was instructed to do, ‘Run Forrest Run’.

Jesus embracing us

It is time that we forgive ourselves.
Once we repent, we must continue to look ahead and hear God tell us this is the way.

Re-Blog –  https://wp.me/p98Coa-wC (copy and paste into your post)
Images – YouVersion.Bible.com
Scriptures – Biblestudytools.com
References/Resources – bible.com; biblestudytools.com

Thank you for visiting my Young Christian Warriors site and dailyinspiration-lisasthoughts.com, at the moment there is some duplication. I am working on merging the two to create one great site. Please bear with me through this process.

 

 

 

 

Mary and Martha as Archetypes

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Mary and Martha can be seen as archetypes. We possess both archetype personalities, that of Mary and Martha. Martha, who invited Jesus to stay at her and her sisters home, scurried around preparing the house and meal. She was practical and efficient. There is nothing wrong following custom unless it becomes a problem. She placed doing things before God. We need to be alert and recognize when we are distracted.

Mary broke custom to sit at Jesus’ feet. She knew that custom would adversely affect the result of spending time with Jesus. She later did not spare cost and poured expensive oil, spikenard, on Jesus’ feet to wash them and dried them with her hair, demonstrating intimacy and reverence.

While Jesus and his followers were traveling, he went into a town, and a woman named Martha let him stay at her house. She had a sister named Mary. Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to him teach. But her sister Martha was busy doing all the work that had to be done. Martha went in and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are getting worried and upset about too many things. Only one thing is important. Mary has made the right choice, and it will never be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:38-41, ESV

Martha also sat by Jesus, but only after she completed her tasks. There was a level of trepidation involved in her steps. Jesus told her not to worry or be troubled.

There are several takeaways from this story. Mary made a conscious decision between the two options, to help her sister or sit at Jesus’ foot. Today take time to study this: living a Christlike life is a radical way of life. We can either sit at Jesus’ feet and experience his love for us and learn from Him like Mary, or scurry around busily like Martha and miss the calmness He provides that reduces and eliminates worry, anxiety, and fear. We have to make choices every day, do we take time to seek our Lord and Savior or stay busied secondary things. Matthew 6:33 tells us that Jesus is clear about our choices and shared, we should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

But Martha, though posed to follow custom when she noticed Mary was sitting down at the foot of Jesus, went to God in prayer. Jesus responded, do not worry or be troubled. The point is that Martha still loved Christ, still revered Him and called upon Him. Both knew and loved the Lord. We love the Lord as well. Our choices will determine if we acknowledge Him as being more important to us than life itself and not letting the ‘good part’ that cannot be taken from us or miss daily opportunities to spend time with our Lord. The things we seek before Christ will pass away, the Word of God will live in us and direct us throughout time. 

ReBlog – https://wp.me/p98Coa-vG
‭‭Images – Google Images; YouVersion.Bible.com
Scriptures – Biblestudytools.com
References/Resources – www.ucg.org. Beyond Today. Profiles of Faith: Mary and Martha-Lessons from Two Sisters.

Thank you for visiting my Young Christian Warriors site and dailyinspiration-lisasthoughts.com, at the moment there is some duplication. I am working on merging the two to create one great site. Please bear with me through this process.

Seek God’s Strength

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1chron16-11

God reiterates throughout the Bible, seek me and I will give you strength. This is not a suggestion, but rather His covenant with you; He promises that He will be with you from everlasting to everlasting.

If you seek Him, call on Him in prayer, He will respond by giving you the strength to see your way through.

What should we seek?

1) Seek His mercy and grace.
2) Seek strength for His Service. His power is made perfect in our weakness.
3) Seek His Face, meaning Seek His presence.

God will never forsake us or leave us if we establish a reverential relationship with Him. He is everlasting in good times and harder times. The scripture says, glory in His Holy Name, think of this as sitting in the sun, in the grass on a warm day. It is during these moments that we rejoice in His presence because we feel His love and his warmth.  In the midst of this calm, we feel the strength of the sun just as we feel His strength. Visualizing this depiction of sitting with the Lord in the warm sun will revive you when you are in good times and when you are wary, questioning, and having difficult moments.

Remember this feeling when it seems God is not present. There are moments when He is quiet or we cannot hear Him. The warmth of His presence will see you through.

“Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!”
1 Chronicles‬ ‭16:10-11‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Look to the Lord for his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced.”

Note: King David wrote 1 Chronicles.

ReBlog – https://wp.me/p98Coa-vK
‭‭Images – YouVersion.Bible.com
Scriptures – Biblestudytools.com
References/Resources – ReversingVerses.com/2012/11/29/1-chronicles-1621/

Thank you for visiting my Young Christian Warriors site and dailyinspiration-lisasthoughts.com, at the moment there is some duplication. I am working on merging the two to create one great site. Please bear with me through this process.