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Archive for the ‘God’ Category

Hosanna

Posted in Bible, Easter, God, hymns, Jesus, Palm Sunday, worship, tagged , , , , on March 13, 2013|

palm sundayHosanna, loud hosanna,
The little children sang;
Through pillared court and temple
The lovely anthem rang.
To Jesus, who had blessed them,
Close folded to His breast,
The children sang their praises,
The simplest and the best.
 
From Olivet they followed
Mid an exultant crowd,
The victor palm branch waving
And chanting clear and loud.
The Lord of earth and heaven
Rode on in lowly state
Nor scorned that little children
Should on His bidding wait.
 
“Hosanna in the highest!”
That ancient song we sing,
For Christ is our Redeemer,
The Lord of heav’n our King.
Oh, may we ever praise Him
With heart and life and voice
And in His blissful presence
Eternally rejoice!

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Finding Easter Part 2 – Who’s Jesus?

Posted in Easter, God, Jesus, tagged , , , on March 9, 2013|

It’s easy to get Jesus wrong.  You could consider Him just a wise teacher, gentle prophet, or worse, a mere man. You could limit Him in your thinking to the 33 years of his life and try to hold His influence to those narrow boundaries.

But Jesus won’t stay in the small enclosure you built for Him. No, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the great I Am, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, He is the coming King and Messiah (the promised one) whose arrival is foretold by the Old Testament prophets.

Understanding the implications of Easter, requires an understanding of exactly who Jesus of Nazareth was and is. According to the gospel of John, He was in the beginning with God, co-equal to God, part of the trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).

So what was God doing living as a man in a remote village outside of Jerusalem in the first century A.D.?

God became man to solve man’s problem, because man was eternally separated from God by his sin, and the only way to change man’s future, so he could be in communion with God, was for a man to live a perfect life, fulfilling all the requirements of God’s law, and to then give up that perfect life in sacrificial offering for the sins of all the other men who lived and would live. That is what Jesus did for me, for you, for the whole world.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  John 3:16

He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.  1 John 2:2

Silhouettes of Three Crosses

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When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Posted in Crucifixion, Easter, God, hymns, Isaac Watts, tagged , , , , , on March 6, 2013|

isaac wattsWhen I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

By Isaac Watts, 1674-1748

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Why doesn’t everyone get saved the first time they hear the gospel message?

Posted in Gospels, John, Light, New Testament, tagged , , , , on September 7, 2012|

If Jesus truly had the words of eternal life as Peter said  in John 6:68, why wouldn’t everyone who heard His words accept the message of the gospel?

The answer is found in John 3, right after the well-known proclamation of God’s love for man in John 3:16, we read this:

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. John 3:19-20

Is your love for your sin keeping you from accepting the free gift of salvation?  Are you clinging to the darkness, hiding from the light, so you can continue to engage in your sin?

Don’t be deceived, Light is coming.  He will expose you for who you are and your evil deeds will be known by all.  Repent and turn from your sin and allow the Light of the World to flood the darkness of your soul.  Today is the day of Salvation!

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Poem by Charles Wesley

Posted in God, Poem, tagged , , on August 29, 2012|

Arise, my soul, arise;

Shake off thy guilty fears;

The bleeding Sacrifice

In my behalf appears:

Before the throne my Surety stands,

My name is written on His hands.

My God is reconciled;

His pardoning voice I hear:

He owns me for His child;

I can no longer fear:

With confidence I now draw nigh,

And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.

—Charles Wesley

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Greek Hymn

Posted in God, hymns, Poem, tagged , , on August 22, 2012|

My God, shall sin its power maintain

And in my soul defiant live!

“Tis not enough that Thou forgive,

The cross must rise and self be slain.

O God of love, Thy power disclose:

“Tis not enough that Christ should rise,

I, too, must seek the brightening skies,

And rise from death, as Christ arose.

 

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Firsts in Genesis 2

Posted in Bible, Genesis, God, Old Testament, tagged , , , , on August 20, 2012|

As we mentioned in the last post, the book of Genesis, is a book of origins or beginnings.  We found many origins or “firsts” in Chapter 1, but there are more to be found in Chapter 2:

Verse 7 – First record of rest

Verse 8 – First garden

Verse 9 – First record of Tree of Life and Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Verse 10 – First record of a river

Verse 11 – First record of a job (Adam was to tend and keep the garden)

Verse 16 – First record of God giving a command to Adam.

Verse 20 – Origin of the names of animals

Verse 21 – First surgery

Verse 22 – First woman

Verse 23 – First words of Adam

Verse 24 – First Marriage

Verse 25 – First husband and wife to wear matching outfits

If I missed one, post a comment and let me know.

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The Irresistible Fervor of the New Believer

Posted in God, salvation, tagged , , on August 6, 2012| 4 Comments »

Recently, a woman I have known for over 20 years became a believer in Christ.  By her own words, she was “born again.”  I was deeply impacted by her conversion.

My friend and I ware both small business owners and have dealt primarily with each other in that capacity.  Through the years that I have been going to her business, I have not kept my relationship with Christ a secret.  I shared with her what was going on in my life, what my husband and I were doing in ministry and invited her to church-related events.  Although I did pray for her and her family over the years, I am sad to say, I never asked her if she wanted to be born again.

But GOD . . . He sent another to lead her to Christ.  The first time I saw her after she got saved, she told me with great excitement.  I could see the change.  I could sense her hunger.  I met with her that very day and  began to answer her questions about the Bible .  She was very grateful.

But that was so little to give her for what she brought to me.  Through her, I heard God speaking to me.  “Out of the world, I continue to pluck them.  One by one I will claim them from wherever they are.  I am not finished the work of saving.”

I felt so amazed.  In the brightness of her excitement about God and all the things of God, I was humbled.  For surely God had done this thing and had let me see it.  I am so grateful.  I pray to be in the path of many more new believers.  They give off such a pleasant aroma . . . the aroma of God.

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Poem: No Coward Soul is Mine

Posted in God, Poem, tagged , , , , , on May 21, 2012|

No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere!
I see Heaven’s glories shine,
and Faith shines equal, arming me from Fear.
 
 O God within my breast,
Almighty ever-present Deity!
Life, that in me hast rest
As I, undying Life, have power in thee!
 
Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men’s hearts, unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth, amid the boundless main.
 
To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by thy infinity,
So surely anchored on
The steadfast rock of immortality.
 
With wide-embracing love
Thy spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates and rears.
 
Though earth and moon were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And thou wert left alone,
Every Existence would exist in thee.
 
There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void
Since thou art Being and Breath,
And what thou art may never be destroyed.
 
–Emily Bronte

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Poem: The Mirror

Posted in God, Poem, tagged , , , , on May 7, 2012| 1 Comment »

Lord, make my soul

To mirror Thee,

Thyself alone

To shine in me,

That men may see

Thy love, Thy grace,

Not note the glass

That shows Thy face

–Blanche Mary Kelly

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