'Earnestly contending for the faith,' (Jude 3 ) as well as sharing encouragement and hope through Scripture (Romans 15:4), and through the poems and posts that I write. One of many voices on the Internet warning Christians of the importance of testing the teachings of men (and women) against the unchanging truth of God's Word. (Acts 17:11) I 'warn you with tears' through much of what I write, to 'be on guard against the savage wolves that will come in among us who will distort the Word of God' as God's Word warns us about in Acts 20:26-31
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After seeing more and more churches these days promoting not only yoga, but also the Martial Arts, I found the need to set aside some time today to put together this short, but very important post. It is my hope and prayer that this post will reach many Christians — as well as non-Christians — who are sadly involved with the Martial Arts thinking that they are simply just innocent classes that teach discipline and self-defense methods. It is both sad and deeply alarming to realize that many Christians — including pastors — do not realize the spiritual dangers and occult roots of these practices as well as the philosophy that is so prevalent in the Martial Arts! So today I wanted to present to you not only the link to the short version of Gaylene Goodroad’s testimony of her time in the Martial Arts (during which sheachieved not one, but two black belts, both which she has renounced after becoming a Christian), but also the link to her E BOOK:
The link to the short version of her testimony can be found HERE
When time allows, I pray that you will take time to read through all of the important information that she has provided for everyone at the links above so that you can become aware of the spiritual dangers that are involved in these practices. I pray also that you will seek the Lord in prayer and in His Word if you are either presently involved in the Martial Arts or have enrolled your children in these classes, innocently thinking that they will simply learn how to become more disciplined and learn how to defend themselves.
Here also is the link to Gaylene Goodroad’s website where she clearly states that she is: “…determined to expose the spiritual dangers of combat arts.”MY LIFE IN THE WAY
Gaylene also contends for the faith by writing many important and informative posts (along with Sarah Leslie) for the: HERESCOPE BLOG You will find that these posts are all rooted in Scripture in order to expose the many ways in which spiritual mysticism (and more) has infiltrated the Church, thus leading many Christians away from Biblical truth and into the world of the occult. The need to continually pray for spiritual discernment as well as the need to constantly test everything that a professing Christian pastor or teacher says and does is a must these days, and we are shown the importance of doing so in Scripture:
“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
“Prove [test] all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. ” (1 Thessalonians 5:21,22)
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try [test] the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)
God’s Word is filled with many warnings about adopting the pagan practices of the culture that surrounded His chosen people, the Jews. Here are just a few of them:
“You must not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not follow the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you. You must not walk in their customs.” (Leviticus 18:3)
“Do not practice divination or seek omens.” ” ‘Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 19:26,31)
“You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.” (Leviticus 20:23)
“Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.” (Deuteronomy 12:30)
Similar warnings were given to the church regarding being led astray by the philosophies of men and doctrines of devils, not yoking together with unbelievers, and how false teachers would arise even from among us which is clearly happening today through Spiritual Formation classes, yoga classes, and Martial Art classes that are being presented at many allegedly Biblically based churches. Just as you cannot separate the spiritual aspect of yoga from the different poses that are done, so also you cannot separate the Buddhist spiritual aspects and philosophy from the Martial Arts.
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” (1 Timothy 4:1)
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)
“And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:25-31)
We are truly living in the last days! The Book of Revelation clearly shows us the depth of the demonic activity that will be taking place at that time and how the people will refuse to repent in spite of the judgements that God will bring upon the earth because man loved their sin and refused to receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. Instead they will believe the lie because they chose not to believe the truth:
“And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.” (Revelation 9:20,21)
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:1-8)
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-12)
Here also are links to podcasts that Gaylene did with BEREAN CALL’S,T. A. McMahon regarding her time in the Martial Arts:
Are you aware of the dangers of Contemplative Spirituality? Would you know error as soon as you heard or saw something? Do you take the time to do some research on authors of books that are mentioned or suggested for you to read by those in leadership at your church before reading them? I pray that this post will help you learn to discern and show you just how very important it is to not only read and study God’s Word and to pray for discernment, but also how very important it is to always be alert for spiritual deception! I also pray that you will see just how subtle spiritual deception begins and how it can dangerously progress and lead you away from Biblical truth!
Before we begin, here’s some background information:
I used to be on Twitter quite frequently a few years ago. However, going on Twitter, as well as on Facebook, can turn the intended amount of time of being on there for just fifteen or twenty minutes, to at least an hour or two if you get drawn into commenting on a tweet or a post that you see the need to express your appreciation for or concerns about. It made me realize just how time consuming social media can be! All that to say this: I decided to go back on Twitter recently because I saw a huge spike in my blog stats on May 3rd, and the views were all coming from Twitter. Everyone was reading one of my most popular posts regarding why I left my church, HarvestBible Chapel Rolling Meadows, back in 2012 after attending there for 14 1/2 years: https://living4hisglory.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/warning-you-with-tears/ Jessica Hockett, also a former member of Harvest Bible Chapel, had discovered my post and after realizing that she had been — and continues to be — an important person in the ongoing investigation regarding the misappropriation of funds by former Pastor, James MacDonald, and the wrongdoings and coverups that have been taking place at Harvest Bible Chapel Rolling Meadows, I began to read up on the very latest of what had been happening.
Now, to get to the important point of this post:
After a few weeks of being on Twitter and connecting with many people who also have serious concerns about those who once were in leadership there, and concerns regarding some who are still in leadership, as well as love and concern for the people who are still attending there, I saw that some people had posted a recording of a recent HARVEST BIBLE CHAPEL ROLLING MEADOWS FAMILY MEETING – (MAY 29, 2019) and decided to listen to see what people were being told by those in leadership and to also see if any emotional manipulation was taking place. There definitely was some emotional manipulation taking place by what was being said to those in attendance, but this post is going to focus on something else that is equally or even more serious. I will continue now by telling you what I heard in that audio that urged me to write this post in order to send out a serious warning not only to those who are still attending Harvest Bible Chapel, but also to everyone because these types of unbiblical teachings are coming full force into many churches these days through so-called Spiritual Formation classes and similar classes!
NOTE: To those of you who may now be reading this post and are still choosing to continue attending Harvest Bible Chapel, (the Rolling Meadows location especially), I want to clearly state beforehand that my intention in writing this post is not to bring you any more pain as you are all trying to heal, but rather to help you — and every one else — realize the importance of thinking for yourselves, to help you realize the necessity of examining the Scriptures daily to see if what is being said is true (Acts 17:11), to alert you to what some — or all — of your leaders are involved in, and to give you information about some troubling things that they have already presented to some of you, and information about what they may very well present to you in the near future.
Although this information mainly has to do with HBC, this information is as relevant to every other Christian because what I am about to share with all of you is coming into many churches through numerous pastors, teachers, and authors of books that are being promoted at many churches these days.
Now back to the main thing that I heard as I listened to the audio of the family meeting at HBCRM and what I discovered after doing a lot of research:
As I continued listening, I heard Greg Bradshaw encourage everyone to “read” this summer and to “get a good book.” He mention a book entitled, Emotionally Healthy Church beginning at the 24:18 minute mark by saying:
“We’re reading as a church — we provided for our staff — ‘Emotionally Healthy Church.’ We’re reading ‘Emotionally Healthy Church’ book this summer as a staff…”
I had never heard of that book before, so I decided to do some research on it, as well as taking some time to do some research on the author, Peter Scazzero. Here are some of the alarming things that I discovered:
Here is what you will see on the Our Vision page on the website of the church that Pete pastors — New Life Fellowship Church — that is located in Queens, New York. Red flag words: Spiritual formation practices, Monastic values, contemplative and monastic traditions, Desert Fathers and Mothers, and monks.
The following 1 hour and 16 minute video is the first of many videos that I watched and listened to in order to find out as much as possible about Pete Scazzero and what he teaches. Below the video you will see a list of notes that I took as I listened. I did that for you for the first 30 minutes of the video.
Pete says people are not experiencing deep transformation.
Mentions self awareness, managing one’s triggers under stress
Pete claims to have had 4 conversions
Notices and says, “People are not changing deeply in our church.”
1994 Pete starts an inward journey for 2 years
Started Christian counseling
His wife confronted him on how he’s not a strong leader – left his church, attended another one
Pete shows diagram created by now deceased professor of Fuller Theological Seminary , Robert Guelich, and claims Emotional Health and Spiritual Maturity are inseparable
Emotional component
He claims he and his wife were “born-again” again
1996-2003 Claims “a little revolution took place in our church just by bringing in the emotional component”
He still felt “something more was needed.” He “began to read quite a bit about Monasticism.”
2003, 2004 – For a 4 month period he and his wife “visited a variety of monasteries and lived rhythms of silence and solitude.”
A revolution. Third conversion.
Pete says about Christians in general, “We’re so busy we have to live off other people’s spirituality.”
Got people connected personally with God directly
Made drastic move to slow down their lives
“…people’s lives began to be radically transformed…finally wrote it down into a couple of books.”
The description that can be found under the following video on YouTube, says:
“Pete Scazzero interviews Rosy Kandathil about her experiences at the Monastery. Rosy is a former staff and pastor at New Life Fellowship and began a journey to become a Benedictine Sister.”
Being a former Catholic, I find it very troubling that he presented this woman, Rosy Kandathil, who was once a “pastor” at his church and who is now in the process of becoming a Benedictine nun to speak to the people at his church, but it further shows that he is clearly promoting Catholicism and Contemplative New Age spirituality.
Just in case the following video entitled, ‘Pete Scazzero Interviewing a Trappist Monk on Prayer‘ disappears for some reason, I did a quick capture of it for you to document the fact that Pete Scazzero is promoting eastern mysticism and Catholicism by featuring William Meninger, a Catholic trappist monk, at his church. Once again I must ask a question: Why would a professing Christian pastor choose to have a monk speak at his church if he wasn’t?
Here is the video:
Below are some quick captures from the above video that will show you how Pete Scazzero has embraced the teachings of Catholicism regarding communion, that being that Jesus Christ is truly present in the elements of bread and wine and that Jesus comes into us when we take communion:
Here is a reminder for you of what it says in the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding their communion which they call, the Eucharist:
“In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.” (Para 1374 CCC)
Here is one of the anathemas (curses) regarding the Eucharist that you will find in the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent:
Canon 3 “If anyone saith that the Sacrifice of the Mass is only a sacrifice of praise and of thanksgiving; or that it is a bare commemoration of the sacrifices consummated on the cross, but not a propitiatory sacrifice; or that it profits him only who receives; and that it ought not to be offered for the living and the dead for sins, pains, satisfactions, and other necessities; let him be anathema.”
[NOTE: Lord willing, I will be going in depth on the teaching of the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of the Mass in light of Scripture when we get to that part in the CCC book.]
One look at William Meninger in the following picture that was chosen as the main image for this video should leave no doubt in one’s mind that what he presents is not Biblical Christianity, but rather a form of mystical, New Age spirituality that is rooted in Buddhism, which is the same type of spirituality that Pete Scazzero is presenting at the church he pastors, New Life Fellowship Church in New York.
For those of you who have never heard of The Cloud of Unknowing, here are some resources for you to help you learn to discern so that you will not be deceived by this:
The reason I am concerned that these mystical, New Age practices might very well be encouraged to be practiced by those attending HBCRM is not only because this book by Pete Scazzero was mentioned by Greg Bradshaw at the Family Meeting as a book that is being read by the staff, but also because of what Greg Bradshaw said beginning at 16:03-16:46 minute mark which was:
“How do you rebuild hope? I told our staff and I’m telling you, ‘The way you rebuild hope is intimacy with God.’ There’s no shortcut… but if your struggling a little bit with hope, ‘What is this going to look like at our church,’ the way to build hope is intimacy with God. And how do you build intimacy with God? There’s no shortcut, it’s disciplines. It’s finding time to get alone with God. It’s called solitude.”
In order to show you that I am not merely speculating, here is some documented evidence that I came across in my research that will prove to you that as far back as 2012 Pete Scazzero and his Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (EHS) teachings have been promoted in some ways at HBC:
I am also very concerned for all of you at HBCRM because of Greg Bradshaw’s emphasis on having “intimacy with God” and “getting healthy” as a church in light of his focus on Pete Scazzero’s book, ‘Emotionally Healthy Church’ which clearly presents New Age/New Spirituality/Catholic mystical practices as ways to haveintimacywith God. After listening to the audio of HBC’s Family Meeting, I just strongly felt led to write this post as a warning of what might be presented to you this fall as the leadership at HBC seems to be raising a level of excitement about what they desire to see take place starting this fall season.
UPDATE 7/3/19 10:22 A.M.NOTE ADDED FOR CLARIFICATION:
I need to make it very clear that I am not saying that the leaders at Harvest Bible Chapel are intentionally and knowingly promoting these unbiblical, occultic teachings…they may be deceived into believing these are acceptable practices to do to bring one closer to God like so many other Christians have been (wrongly) led to believe. Harvest Bible Chapel leadership has been promoting Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer for many years now, and these women (wrongly) teach how to hear God speak to you. (Please consider reading the following post to see the documentation that I have on these women: HARVEST BIBLE CHAPEL LEADERSHIP, CHRISTIAN LEADERS, AND THE LACK OF BIBLICAL DISCERNMENT). However, there is no excuse for pastors and teachers who are held to an even higher lever of accountability (James 3:1) to fall for or to present such unbiblical practices to the people at their churches. Sadly, when many pastors see that a certain teacher is popular, they simply order their so-called “Bible studies” and fail to take the time to test what they actually teach against the truth of God’s Word to see if it is true or not. Harvest Bible Chapel Rolling Meadows leadership has fail to be Biblical shepherds and to guard their flock from false teachers; instead they just invite them in: Mark Driscoll, Steven Furtick, Levi Lusko, etc.
“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God which he bought with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28)
We are all called to: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21,22) As Christians, we think that we can trust those in leadership, but that simply is not true. The only one who we can completely trust is Jesus Christ alone and His Holy Word that will endure forever. (1 Peter 1:25)
Besides constantly praying for discernment, now, more than ever before, we as Christians must: study God’s Word ( 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV), examine the Scriptures daily to see if what is being said (and done) is true (Acts 17:11) or not, and always be alert so that we are not deceived by the many ways in which our enemy, the devil, is attempting to devour us. (1 Peter 5:8)
Please also consider reading this post regarding Levi Lusko: HOW DISCERNING ARE YOU? He was a guest speaker at Harvest Bible Chapel Rolling Meadows in 2016 on January 2nd and 3rd. [NOTE: Just to let you know, this post also includes a Biblical analysis of a message that T D Jakes’ daughter (Sarah Jakes Roberts) preached, entitled, ‘The Displaced Crown,’ but she did not present this message at Harvest Bible Chapel. The video that she preached her message in was taken down shortly after I posted it.] END OF UPDATE
Dear Harvest Bible Chapel Rolling Meadows members and attendees — and every Christian — beware! Beware of what is being presented to you as ways to develop intimacy with God. We have God’s Word, the Bible. What more could we ever need in order to develop intimacy with God? Nothing more! Especially when the practices that are suggested for us to do in order to have intimacy with God is derived from unbiblical, New Age practices that can be found in Buddhism, Hinduism, and mystical practices derived from Catholicism –practices that open up doorways into the world of the occult!
“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” (1 Timothy 4:1)
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:1-4)
“Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard. Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:25-31)
Thank you very much for stopping by today.
God Bless You
~Mary Dalke – Living4HisGlory
RELATED VIDEOS
In the following video, Pete Scazzero, who is also the co-founder of Emotionally Healthy Discipleship (EHD), where they “help leaders around the world grow their people into mature disciples of Jesus,” tells us how EHD has “helped thousands of people move from a shallow Christianity to a deep authentic relationship with God, themselves, and others.“Although he may give some good suggestions in his courses, such as taking enough time to rest, to say that the Christianity of those who do not pursue the ways through which he suggests in his courses in order to be able to have a “deep authentic relationship with God” is “shallow Christianity,” is very troubling!
In the following video, ‘Pete’s Take on Daily Office,’ that you will find further below this quick capture from the video, Pete Scazzero has this to say beginning at the 1:31 minute mark:
“…but the silence to me is the quality that probably I found most significant because again, I’m being with Jesus my lover, and I’m quieting myself down, I’m centering in Christ and abiding in this love relationship allowing Him to love me and I’m loving Him back.” (Emphasis is mine).
This is sometimes referred to as spiritual romanticism; it is a completely unbiblical form of thinking in which we view Jesus Christ as our “lover.” This is frighteningly becoming a more common belief among professing Christian teachers (such as Ann Voskamp), and it leads Christians down an unbiblical and dangerous path!
In the video that you will find further below, which is entitled, ‘What is the Daily Office & Why is it Needed,’ at the 2:43 minute mark you will find this chart that shows ‘the core of the EHS (Emotionally Healthy Spirituality) Course.’ These are very similar to the experienced based methods that you will find in transcendental meditation and in the New Age Movement.
At the 3:23 minute mark in the video below you will hear Pete Scazzero quote Brother Lawrence, and at the 4:43 minute mark in this same video you will also hear Pete Scazzero quote Dallas Willard. Both of these men promoted unbiblical, contemplative, mystical, spirituality. (See information on these men that I have added below for you at the end of this post).
Beginning at the 5:09 minute mark in the same video that you will find further below, you will also see this chart with Silence & Stillness Guidelines that clearly present the same type of steps that you will find in eastern meditation practices in Buddhism, but they have been repackaged using Christian terminology:
Finally, here is the actual video, entitled: ‘What is the Daily Office & Why is it Needed?’
At the 4:12 minute mark in the following video you will hear Pete Scazzero say:
“Remember, the purpose of the Daily Office is to commune with God.”
He ends this video by saying: “…and I trust that you will find, as I have, that you are remembering and thinking of God much more throughout your days, in ways that you never imagined or did before.”
When anyone tells you to practice spiritual disciplines that are the same types of spiritual disciplines practiced by Buddhist and Catholic monks only Christianized to make them appear acceptable, or if you are told to read a certain book or that taking a specific course is going to change your spiritual life rather than telling you that all you need is to spend time with God in His spiritual life giving, life changing Word — the Bible — that should send up an immediatered flag within your spirit! We are sadly at a point in time when many professing Christian pastors and teachers are casting aside Biblical Christianity. Instead they are now focusing on man’s emotions and promoting having experiences with God that come directly out of the world of the occult!
I am sure that Pete Scazzero and his wife are probably very sincere and wonderful people, but they have sadly been deceived by accepting these unbiblical practices as ways to develop a deeper relationship with God. When trying to search for ways to help their people grow in their relationship with God and to grow spiritually, they have wandered off the Biblical path and are now presenting to their people — and to the world — teachings that are telling everyone to look inward instead of looking to God and seeking Him in His Word.
God is the only one who transforms us by His Word and by His Holy Spirit when we choose to believe the good news of the Biblical gospel and come to Him through Jesus Christ; transformation does not come about by looking inward and dwelling on the past and on our emotional pain and struggles. (Isaiah 43:18) (Philippians 3:13)
Jesus Christ was and is God in the flesh. Jesus, being fully God, took upon Himself human flesh and entered our sin-filled world. He lived the perfect, sinless life that we could never live, and became the perfect sacrifice. Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, willingly went to the cross where He bore all of our sins as well as all of our grief and sorrows, and God poured out all of His wrath intended for us because of our sins upon His one and only Son. He died in our place, was buried, and was gloriously raised to life on the third day in bodily form to show that God accepted His death as full payment for every one of our sins — no matter what we may have done! God is love, but He is also just. Therefore sin must be paid for, and Jesus paid our debt to sin in full –tetelestai. That is the life changing good news of the Biblical gospel that transforms a person’s life!
May I share a personal illustration with you? During the twelve years of my marriage I became a broken and shattered woman emotionally because of the way that my ‘husband’ treated me. However, everything began to change when I began to read the Bible and came to see the truly good news of the Biblical gospel for the first time and chose to believe it and to place my full trust in all that Jesus Christ accomplished for us. In the midst of my deep hurt I did not look inward. I cried out to God and read His Word often throughout each day as the tears fell and my heart broke in thousands of pieces. As I spent time in prayer and in His Word, God began to heal me and to renew my mind and troubled heart and I no longer based my worth as a person by how my ‘husband’ treated me, but rather by what God’s Word says. That is when my life began to change and God began to transform me into a new creation in Christ. Day by day I learned to trust God more, and day by day His strength became perfected in my weakness and His peace that surpasses all human understanding began to guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus as I prayed and stopped worrying about everything. He proved Himself over and over to be faithful and able to meet all of my needs in ways that I never would have imagined!
I pray that Pete and his wife will begin simply seeking God in His Word and that one day he will cast these unbiblical practices out of his church, his books, and his presentations, as well, and that he will point his people — and all Christians — back to Jesus Christ — who was and is God in the flesh –so that they will find true and lasting transformation! As true Biblical Christians that is what we are all to do.
I hope you can now see that in many ways Christianity today is becoming more and more experiential based. Sadly, God’s Holy Word, the Bible, is now being used by many as a tool to bring one into an altered state of consciousness as it is twisted and repeated over and over. God’s Word is no longer seen as having the greatest importance as it is read and studied in context. The only way to truly come to know God is through coming to Jesus Christ in simple faith and believing that His “once for all sacrifice” was truly enough to pay the debt for all of our sins in full!
Please do not be deceived by these unbiblical types of practices that may sound very appealing to you emotionally, but at their very core is New Age Catholic mysticism.
RELATED VIDEOS
More videos to show you how William Meninger, who was a guest at Pete Scazzero’s church, is heavily involved in New Age/ New Spirituality/Buddhism/Catholic mysticism.
Here is some information regarding Fuller Theological Seminary, the seminary that now deceased Professor of New Testament, Robert Guelich taught at. He was the one who made the chart that Pete Scazzero showed in his presentation at the 22:32 minute mark in the first video entitled, ‘Emotionally Healthy Spirituality – An Evening With Pete Scazzero.’
Lord willing, another new post coming later this month or in August on this same subject regarding how Catholic mysticism is infiltrating many churches these days and leading many Christians astray in order to show the extreme importance of reading and studying God’s Word and praying for discernment.
Also coming later in July, Lord willing, will be another new post in the series in which we will continue comparing the teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church to a Catholic New Testament to show precious Catholics the truly good news of the Biblical gospel and that many of the things that they are being taught, which is based on the traditions of men, contradicts God’s Word, the Bible. It is equally important for all Christians to know this information so that they not only come to realize the need to share the truly good news of the Biblical gospel with their dear Catholic friends and family, but also so that they will not be deceived into thinking that Catholicism is Biblical and end up being lured into Catholicism by one of many ways that have been devised by our enemy, the devil.
To those of you who may have been wondering why I have not posted anything recently, I deeply apologize! I have been trying to make time to work on writing the second post in the present series, APPARITIONS OF THE VIRGIN MARY, OR DEMONS IN DISGUISE? EXAMINING THE EVIDENCE IN LIGHT OF SCRIPTURE, however, a lot has been happening lately that has caused my free time to be extremely limited! Such as:
1) I am continuing to look for a new church since I am still churchless, (if you’d like, you can read why I left my former church after attending there for over five years by reading: CHURCHLESS ONCE AGAIN)
2) My engine light turned on in my car, and after discovering that it would cost $2,700.00 to repair my 2003 car, I realized it was time for me to start looking to purchase another used car
3) AND, since the childcare job that I am blessed to have again for the same precious child that I had before turned out to be for only one day each week instead of the four days that it was originally going to be for because the mom had a change of plans, and because I know how unlikely it is that I would be able to get some type of job writing from a Christian perspective, I knew that it was time for me to seriously start praying and looking for some other type of job that I would enjoy so that God could use it to provide for my immediate and future needs
Now that two of the three major concerns have been taken care of, I need to devote some of my present time to preparing for my new position as a local Freelance Floral Designer and teacher of Floral Design For Beginners at my neighborhood craft store. I am in the process of setting up a new blog for my new business that I dedicate to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, trusting that He will indeed supply all of my needs according to His riches in glory. However, I want all of you to know that I am as dedicated to standing for Biblical truth and exposing error as I ever was, and, Lord willing, I will continue to write and present you with posts that I pray God will use to make all of you realize the extreme importance of being a follower of Jesus Christ alone and not a follower of any man (or woman) and their ministry, as well as the extreme importance of reading and studying God’s Word so that you will never be led astray by the many spiritually deceptive teachings and doctrines of men that not only have become popular these days, but also have led so many precious Christians captive because they fail to test everything they read and hear against the truth of God’s Word –in context.
Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.
INTRODUCTION, FOR THOSE WHO ARE NEW TO THIS SERIES, AND SOME CLOSING THOUGHTS BEFORE THIS SUMMER SERIES COMES TO AN END AND BEGINS AGAIN NEXT JULY –LORD WILLING
Because there seems to be such a lack of emphasis on God’s Word these days, I wanted to start a new series that will simply focus on God’s Word. So, Lord willing, at the beginning of each and every day I will just be sharing a picture with a Bible verse or a short passage from God’s Word with you, to help you start your day off right by helping to turn you focus off of the problems in your life and on to God, who desires for you to come to Him with all of your burdens and to surrender them to Him.
Maybe some of you are going through a trial right now and you need some hope and encouragement. I am at that place right now. Reading and reflecting on the truth of God’s Word always has a way of making us realize that God is truly aware of what we are going through. He knows our thoughts and sees every tear that we may cry.
Dear Christian, we must stay in God’s Word to keep us connected to Him so that His strength will be made perfect when we are weak, and so that He can give us His grace which is always sufficient to see us through the hard times in life. I know that you know this, but when we are in the valley, so to speak, when the circumstances are so overwhelming that we just feel as if we can’t make it through another day, God’s living Word breathes new life into our weary souls and enables us to carry on in His strength.
There were times when things were so hard in my life that I felt like God had abandoned me. But those of us who truly belong to Him (because we have place our trust in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as being fully sufficient to pay for all of our sins and guilt, and know that He was also buried and that He gloriously arose from the dead for our justification), know that simply isn’t true! Jesus promised that He would never leave or forsake us! Therefore, we must live by faith and trust Him in the midst of our heartbreaking trials and difficult situations, regardless of our feelings of hurt and confusion.
After going through a very hard time in my life and realizing that I was beginning to have bitterness towards God and was starting to turn away from Him because He wasn’t doing what I had prayed, believed, and trusted that He would do, I was struck with the overwhelming reality of what a horrible thing I was doing and asked God to forgive me! I came to clearly realize that as Christians we are to love God for who He is; our love for Him should not be based on what He does or doesn’t do in our lives. We must love Him for what He has already done by providing salvation for us through the sacrifice of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who willingly died in our place and took upon Himself the full wrath that was intended for all of us because of our sins! What amazing love!
Sometimes we forget just how encouraging and living and active God’s Word really is and how it can address exactly what we are going through at the moment our lives start falling apart. But we must choose to trust Him and not become bitter and angry. We must cast our cares on Him and never forget that He is in control and aware of everything that is happening. We must also keep in mind that because sin entered the world when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, therefore sickness, death, and the evil, hurtful choices that people make by the acts of their own free will, are the consequences of that one sin. So, we must not blame God for the evil that befalls us at the hands of others. He is there waiting to pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and to renew our minds with the truth of His Word, and to comfort us and heal us emotionally –IF we choose to turn to Him.
If someone has wronged you, express your hurt and anger that is within your broken and shattered heart to God. Make the choice to forgive the person before Him with your will and not based on your feelings, even if the time never comes for that person to express any sorrow to you for hurting you. Sadly, for some of us that day may never come when we hear the words, “I’m sorry.” Therefore, we are only hurting ourselves if we choose to store up bitterness and anger within our hearts.
Maybe you have been passed over time and time again for that much deserved promotion. Or maybe you have unjustly lost your job. Or it could be that you have taken a stand for what is Biblical and your warnings have been ignored and you have been made to feel as if you have no idea what you are talking about. Whatever you are going through, God’s Word will always bring you comfort, peace, encouragement and direction.
God’s Word also brings conviction, as well, which may be hard to receive at first, but if we are truly a child of God we should appreciate His loving discipline. If we choose to submit to His discipline, we will see how He will give us His strength to overcome sinful habits and cleanse us in order to use us for His glory. One day we will then be able to look back and appreciate how He intervened in our lives in order to prevent us from the consequences of the sin that we once clung to and refused to turn from.
And, oh, the many warnings in Scripture that God has given us to warn us about how spiritual deception and the many false teachers that will arise in the last days, and the importance of knowing His Word and testing the teachings of everyone we listen to so that we will not be deceived! These verses will also be presented to you in this daily series.
All of these important topics that I briefly mentioned to you in this post will be addressed through these daily verses to help keep you focused on the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS – Jesus Christ — and to guide you along life’s way.
For those of you who have yet to place your trust in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and glorious resurrection from the dead as providing the only way to reconcile sinful man with a thrice Holy God, and are instead continuing to wrongly believe that your good works will earn God’s acceptance, I pray that you will choose to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone, very soon! Tomorrow is promised to no one, and your eternal destiny depends upon the choice that you make concerning Jesus Christ:
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)
Please consider reading the gospel of John or the book of Romans, and pray for God to reveal His truth to you. Instead of guilt, regret, fear and sorrow, you can be forgiven for your sins — no matter what you may have done! If you choose to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, He will free you from condemnation, remove the heavy burden of sorrow and regret, and fill you with His peace that surpasses all human understanding. He will transform your thinking and your life as you spend time reading the truth of His Word, and He will use all that you have been through for His glory to reach those who are still in bondage to their sins, because they have not yet heard the good news of the Biblical gospel and made that choice to believe the truth about who Jesus Christ is and all that He accomplished for us through His sinless life, His death in our place, and His glorious resurrection from the dead,and all that His Word, the Bible, has to say.
During the first week of July I prayerfully chose Scriptures that would be encouraging for you. Then we looked at Scriptures concerning what Jesus Christ said about Himself as He spoke figuratively — not literally — to present spiritual truths about Himself, and then we continued with verses focusing on the theme of I AM the Alpha and Omega verses which gives evidence to the fact that Jesus Christ truly is God!
Then we focused on verses that shows the love, strength, and peace that awaits you if you will choose to turn to Him in the midst of your trials and moments of despair. If you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation you have the assurance that He will never leave or forsake you! If you have not yet come to the point of realizing that your good works can never earn your way into heaven and that you are a sinner in the eyes of a thrice Holy God, turn to Him now. If you believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, that He lived the perfect, sinless life that you and I could never live, and that He died in your place for your sins and arose from the dead for your justification, then reach out and receive His forgiveness and His love that awaits you. If you do, you will find real hope and true peace that surpasses all human understanding, and you will find that His grace will be sufficient to carry you through the very darkest moments of your life that we all face in one way or another. Turn to Him now.♥
Due to changes in my schedule, instead of this series continuing to be a daily one, I decided to turn this into a Summer series, which will come to an end, today, July 31st, and, Lord willing, this series will begin again next July.
I decided to end this series with one final warning from God’s Word that needs to be brought to your attention in order to stress the extreme importance of the truths presented in these two final verses to further emphasize the importance of reading, studying, and treasuring God’s Word that He has given to us.
Though this post may not be coming to you at the beginning of your day, depending upon where you live, here are your final verses to bring this series to an end until next Summer, Lord willing, followed with some important closing comments concerning the truths presented in these extremely important verses. Please pay careful attention to what God is telling us in these verses:
Did you notice that it is the LORD who is the one who brings the famine of hearing His Word? Could it be that we are presently living at the time of the fulfillment of God’s Word revealed in these verses from Amos? I am sure that many of you will agree that it is getting extremely difficult to find a church where the pastor preaches the truth of God’s Word without compromise. Sadly, I am churchless because of that very reason! I would rather stay home and spend time in God’s Word, pray for my family and other loved ones, and listen to an online sermon like I am presently doing on a Sunday, instead of starting to attend the first church that seems to be Biblical to me without thoroughly checking it out before making it my new church home!
So why is it that many of us are without a church home, or that many of us are on the verge of leaving our church because of compromises that are being made by our pastor? Why is it that so many pastors are seeking to grow their churches through marketing strategies and worldly ways to appeal to the culture instead of simply preaching God’s Word and trusting that God will grow the church as He did in the book of Acts? Are we now witnessing the judgment of God because mankind, for the most part, has rejected God and His Word?
Not only have unbelievers rejected God and His Word, but also many professing Christians are rejecting the truths presented in Scripture and are desiring to have their ears tickled by searching for pastors and teachers who present messages that satisfy their sensual desires. In 2 Timothy 4:3 it says the following:
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”
Is God now allowing mankind to have their desires satisfied, and at the same time making His Word so scarce that they are spiritually starving because this famine of hearing the Word of God has finally come?
No matter what man may do in an attempt to pervert or to destroy God’s Word, we can be assured that God will preserve His Word forever! (Psalm 119:89, Mathew 5:18, 1 Peter 1:24,25) However, sometimes God may allow us to receive what we thought would satisfy us spiritually, so that we will finally come to realize just how wrong we were and hopefully come to treasure and to cherish His Word!
When I first saw this picture on Photobucket around seven years ago, the verses in Amos Chapter 8 immediately came to mind, so I added them to a copy of the picture on my Photobucket account. To me this picture clearly portrays the spiritual condition of many Christians due to the fact that they go to churches where the Word of God is not accurately being preached, they run off to conferences that feature their favorite pastors and teachers who distort the Word of God, and they read books by their favorite Christian authors who write books that mix a lot of error with truth, all the while neglecting the reading and the studying of God’s living Word, the Bible, and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide them in all truth. These Christians fail to realize that they are starving themselves spiritually as they run off to one spiritually empty place and then on to yet another of the same.
Please don’t let this be you!
Instead, humble yourself before the Lord; cry out to Him and return to Him with all of your heart and ask Him to forgive you for your wanderings and to revive you with the life giving truth of His Word.
Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.
INTRODUCTION – FOR THOSE WHO ARE NEW TO THIS SERIES
Because there seems to be such a lack of emphasis on God’s Word these days, I wanted to start a new series that will simply focus on God’s Word. So, Lord willing, at the beginning of each and every day I will just be sharing a picture with a Bible verse or a short passage from God’s Word with you, to help you start your day off right by helping to turn you focus off of the problems in your life and on to God, who desires for you to come to Him with all of your burdens and to surrender them to Him.
Maybe some of you are going through a trial right now and you need some hope and encouragement. I am at that place right now. Reading and reflecting on the truth of God’s Word always has a way of making us realize that God is truly aware of what we are going through. He knows our thoughts and sees every tear that we may cry.
Dear Christian, we must stay in God’s Word to keep us connected to Him so that His strength will be made perfect when we are weak, and so that He can give us His grace which is always sufficient to see us through the hard times in life. I know that you know this, but when we are in the valley, so to speak, when the circumstances are so overwhelming that we just feel as if we can’t make it through another day, God’s living Word breathes new life into our weary souls and enables us to carry on in His strength.
There were times when things were so hard in my life that I felt like God had abandoned me. But those of us who truly belong to Him (because we have place our trust in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as being fully sufficient to pay for all of our sins and guilt, and know that He was also buried and that He gloriously arose from the dead for our justification), know that simply isn’t true! Jesus promised that He would never leave or forsake us! Therefore, we must live by faith and trust Him in the midst of our heartbreaking trials and difficult situations, regardless of our feelings of hurt and confusion.
After going through a very hard time in my life and realizing that I was beginning to have bitterness towards God and was starting to turn away from Him because He wasn’t doing what I had prayed, believed, and trusted that He would do, I was struck with the overwhelming reality of what a horrible thing I was doing and asked God to forgive me! I came to clearly realize that as Christians we are to love God for who He is; our love for Him should not be based on what He does or doesn’t do in our lives. We must love Him for what He has already done by providing salvation for us through the sacrifice of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who willingly died in our place and took upon Himself the full wrath that was intended for all of us because of our sins! What amazing love!
Sometimes we forget just how encouraging and living and active God’s Word really is and how it can address exactly what we are going through at the moment our lives start falling apart. But we must choose to trust Him and not become bitter and angry. We must cast our cares on Him and never forget that He is in control and aware of everything that is happening. We must also keep in mind that because sin entered the world when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, therefore sickness, death, and the evil, hurtful choices that people make by the acts of their own free will, are the consequences of that one sin. So, we must not blame God for the evil that befalls us at the hands of others. He is there waiting to pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and to renew our minds with the truth of His Word, and to comfort us and heal us emotionally –IF we choose to turn to Him.
If someone has wronged you, express your hurt and anger that is within your broken and shattered heart to God. Make the choice to forgive the person before Him with your will and not based on your feelings, even if the time never comes for that person to express any sorrow to you for hurting you. Sadly, for some of us that day may never come when we hear the words, “I’m sorry.” Therefore, we are only hurting ourselves if we choose to store up bitterness and anger within our hearts.
Maybe you have been passed over time and time again for that much deserved promotion. Or maybe you have unjustly lost your job. Or it could be that you have taken a stand for what is Biblical and your warnings have been ignored and you have been made to feel as if you have no idea what you are talking about. Whatever you are going through, God’s Word will always bring you comfort, peace, encouragement and direction.
God’s Word also brings conviction, as well, which may be hard to receive at first, but if we are truly a child of God we should appreciate His loving discipline. If we choose to submit to His discipline, we will see how He will give us His strength to overcome sinful habits and cleanse us in order to use us for His glory. One day we will then be able to look back and appreciate how He intervened in our lives in order to prevent us from the consequences of the sin that we once clung to and refused to turn from.
And, oh, the many warnings in Scripture that God has given us to warn us about how spiritual deception and the many false teachers that will arise in the last days, and the importance of knowing His Word and testing the teachings of everyone we listen to so that we will not be deceived! These verses will also be presented to you in this daily series.
All of these important topics that I briefly mentioned to you in this post will be addressed through these daily verses to help keep you focused on the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS – Jesus Christ — and to guide you along life’s way.
For those of you who have yet to place your trust in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and glorious resurrection from the dead as providing the only way to reconcile sinful man with a thrice Holy God, and are instead continuing to wrongly believe that your good works will earn God’s acceptance, I pray that you will choose to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone, very soon! Tomorrow is promised to no one, and your eternal destiny depends upon the choice that you make concerning Jesus Christ:
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)
Please consider reading the gospel of John or the book of Romans, and pray for God to reveal His truth to you. Instead of guilt, regret, fear and sorrow, you can be forgiven for your sins — no matter what you may have done! If you choose to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, He will free you from condemnation, remove the heavy burden of sorrow and regret, and fill you with His peace that surpasses all human understanding. He will transform your thinking and your life as you spend time reading the truth of His Word, and He will use all that you have been through for His glory to reach those who are still in bondage to their sins, because they have not yet heard the good news of the Biblical gospel and made that choice to believe the truth about who Jesus Christ is and all that He accomplished for us through His sinless life, His death in our place, and His glorious resurrection from the dead,and all that His Word, the Bible, has to say.
During the first week of July I prayerfully chose Scriptures that would be encouraging for you. Then we looked at Scriptures concerning what Jesus Christ said about Himself as He spoke figuratively — not literally — to present spiritual truths about Himself, and then we continued with verses focusing on the theme of I AM the Alpha and Omega verses which gives evidence to the fact that Jesus Christ truly is God!
This past week we focused on verses that shows the love, strength, and peace that awaits you if you will choose to turn to Him in the midst of your trials and moments of despair. If you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation you have the assurance that He will never leave or forsake you! If you have not yet come to the point of realizing that your good works can never earn your way into heaven and that you are a sinner in the eyes of a thrice Holy God, turn to Him now. If you believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, that He lived the perfect, sinless life that you and I could never live, and that He died in your place for your sins and arose from the dead for your justification, then reach out and receive His forgiveness and His love that awaits you. If you do, you will find real hope and true peace that surpasses all human understanding, and you will find that His grace will be sufficient to carry you through the very darkest moments of your life that we all face in one way or another. Turn to Him now.♥
Due to changes in my schedule, instead of this series being a daily one, I have decided to turn this into a summer series which will come to an end on July 31st. Therefore, here are some warnings from God’s Word that need to be brought to your attention before this series comes to an end, and, Lord willing, this series will begin again next Summer.
Though this post may not be coming to you at the beginning of your day, depending upon where you live, here is your verse for today:
Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.
INTRODUCTION – FOR THOSE WHO ARE NEW TO THIS SERIES
Because there seems to be such a lack of emphasis on God’s Word these days, I wanted to start a new series that will simply focus on God’s Word. So, Lord willing, at the beginning of each and every day I will just be sharing a picture with a Bible verse or a short passage from God’s Word with you, to help you start your day off right by helping to turn you focus off of the problems in your life and on to God, who desires for you to come to Him with all of your burdens and to surrender them to Him.
Maybe some of you are going through a trial right now and you need some hope and encouragement. I am at that place right now. Reading and reflecting on the truth of God’s Word always has a way of making us realize that God is truly aware of what we are going through. He knows our thoughts and sees every tear that we may cry.
Dear Christian, we must stay in God’s Word to keep us connected to Him so that His strength will be made perfect when we are weak, and so that He can give us His grace which is always sufficient to see us through the hard times in life. I know that you know this, but when we are in the valley, so to speak, when the circumstances are so overwhelming that we just feel as if we can’t make it through another day, God’s living Word breathes new life into our weary souls and enables us to carry on in His strength.
There were times when things were so hard in my life that I felt like God had abandoned me. But those of us who truly belong to Him (because we have place our trust in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as being fully sufficient to pay for all of our sins and guilt, and know that He was also buried and that He gloriously arose from the dead for our justification), know that simply isn’t true! Jesus promised that He would never leave or forsake us! Therefore, we must live by faith and trust Him in the midst of our heartbreaking trials and difficult situations, regardless of our feelings of hurt and confusion.
After going through a very hard time in my life and realizing that I was beginning to have bitterness towards God and was starting to turn away from Him because He wasn’t doing what I had prayed, believed, and trusted that He would do, I was struck with the overwhelming reality of what a horrible thing I was doing and asked God to forgive me! I came to clearly realize that as Christians we are to love God for who He is; our love for Him should not be based on what He does or doesn’t do in our lives. We must love Him for what He has already done by providing salvation for us through the sacrifice of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who willingly died in our place and took upon Himself the full wrath that was intended for all of us because of our sins! What amazing love!
Sometimes we forget just how encouraging and living and active God’s Word really is and how it can address exactly what we are going through at the moment our lives start falling apart. But we must choose to trust Him and not become bitter and angry. We must cast our cares on Him and never forget that He is in control and aware of everything that is happening. We must also keep in mind that because sin entered the world when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, therefore sickness, death, and the evil, hurtful choices that people make by the acts of their own free will, are the consequences of that one sin. So, we must not blame God for the evil that befalls us at the hands of others. He is there waiting to pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and to renew our minds with the truth of His Word, and to comfort us and heal us emotionally –IF we choose to turn to Him.
If someone has wronged you, express your hurt and anger that is within your broken and shattered heart to God. Make the choice to forgive the person before Him with your will and not based on your feelings, even if the time never comes for that person to express any sorrow to you for hurting you. Sadly, for some of us that day may never come when we hear the words, “I’m sorry.” Therefore, we are only hurting ourselves if we choose to store up bitterness and anger within our hearts.
Maybe you have been passed over time and time again for that much deserved promotion. Or maybe you have unjustly lost your job. Or it could be that you have taken a stand for what is Biblical and your warnings have been ignored and you have been made to feel as if you have no idea what you are talking about. Whatever you are going through, God’s Word will always bring you comfort, peace, encouragement and direction.
God’s Word also brings conviction, as well, which may be hard to receive at first, but if we are truly a child of God we should appreciate His loving discipline. If we choose to submit to His discipline, we will see how He will give us His strength to overcome sinful habits and cleanse us in order to use us for His glory. One day we will then be able to look back and appreciate how He intervened in our lives in order to prevent us from the consequences of the sin that we once clung to and refused to turn from.
And, oh, the many warnings in Scripture that God has given us to warn us about how spiritual deception and the many false teachers that will arise in the last days, and the importance of knowing His Word and testing the teachings of everyone we listen to so that we will not be deceived! These verses will also be presented to you in this daily series.
All of these important topics that I briefly mentioned to you in this post will be addressed through these daily verses to help keep you focused on the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS – Jesus Christ — and to guide you along life’s way.
For those of you who have yet to place your trust in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and glorious resurrection from the dead as providing the only way to reconcile sinful man with a thrice Holy God, and are instead continuing to wrongly believe that your good works will earn God’s acceptance, I pray that you will choose to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone, very soon! Tomorrow is promised to no one, and your eternal destiny depends upon the choice that you make concerning Jesus Christ:
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)
Please consider reading the gospel of John or the book of Romans, and pray for God to reveal His truth to you. Instead of guilt, regret, fear and sorrow, you can be forgiven for your sins — no matter what you may have done! If you choose to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, He will free you from condemnation, remove the heavy burden of sorrow and regret, and fill you with His peace that surpasses all human understanding. He will transform your thinking and your life as you spend time reading the truth of His Word, and He will use all that you have been through for His glory to reach those who are still in bondage to their sins, because they have not yet heard the good news of the Biblical gospel and made that choice to believe the truth about who Jesus Christ is and all that He accomplished for us through His sinless life, His death in our place, and His glorious resurrection from the dead,and all that His Word, the Bible, has to say.
During the first week of July I prayerfully chose Scriptures that would be encouraging for you. Then we looked at Scriptures concerning what Jesus Christ said about Himself as He spoke figuratively — not literally — to present spiritual truths about Himself, and then we continued with verses focusing on the theme of I AM the Alpha and Omega verses which gives evidence to the fact that Jesus Christ truly is God!
This week we focused on verses that shows the love, strength, and peace that awaits you if you will choose to turn to Him in the midst of your trials and moments of despair. If you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation you have the assurance that He will never leave or forsake you! If you have not yet come to the point of realizing that your good works can never earn your way into heaven and that you are a sinner in the eyes of a thrice Holy God, turn to Him now. If you believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, that He lived the perfect, sinless life that you and I could never live, and that He died in your place for your sins and arose from the dead for your justification, then reach out and receive His forgiveness and His love that awaits you. If you do, you will find real hope and true peace that surpasses all human understanding, and you will find that His grace will be sufficient to carry you through the very darkest moments of your life that we all face in one way or another. Turn to Him now.♥
Due to changes in my schedule, instead of this series being a daily one, I have decided to turn this into a summer series which will come to an end on July 31st. Therefore, here are some warnings from God’s Word that need to be brought to your attention before this series comes to an end, and, Lord willing, this series will begin again next Summer.
Though this post may not be coming to you at the beginning of your day, depending upon where you live, here is your verse for today:
Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time to read some of my posts and poems.
INTRODUCTION – FOR THOSE WHO ARE NEW TO THIS SERIES
Because there seems to be such a lack of emphasis on God’s Word these days, I wanted to start a new series that will simply focus on God’s Word. So, Lord willing, at the beginning of each and every day I will just be sharing a picture with a Bible verse or a short passage from God’s Word with you, to help you start your day off right by helping to turn you focus off of the problems in your life and on to God, who desires for you to come to Him with all of your burdens and to surrender them to Him.
Maybe some of you are going through a trial right now and you need some hope and encouragement. I am at that place right now. Reading and reflecting on the truth of God’s Word always has a way of making us realize that God is truly aware of what we are going through. He knows our thoughts and sees every tear that we may cry.
Dear Christian, we must stay in God’s Word to keep us connected to Him so that His strength will be made perfect when we are weak, and so that He can give us His grace which is always sufficient to see us through the hard times in life. I know that you know this, but when we are in the valley, so to speak, when the circumstances are so overwhelming that we just feel as if we can’t make it through another day, God’s living Word breathes new life into our weary souls and enables us to carry on in His strength.
There were times when things were so hard in my life that I felt like God had abandoned me. But those of us who truly belong to Him (because we have place our trust in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as being fully sufficient to pay for all of our sins and guilt, and know that He was also buried and that He gloriously arose from the dead for our justification), know that simply isn’t true! Jesus promised that He would never leave or forsake us! Therefore, we must live by faith and trust Him in the midst of our heartbreaking trials and difficult situations, regardless of our feelings of hurt and confusion.
After going through a very hard time in my life and realizing that I was beginning to have bitterness towards God and was starting to turn away from Him because He wasn’t doing what I had prayed, believed, and trusted that He would do, I was struck with the overwhelming reality of what a horrible thing I was doing and asked God to forgive me! I came to clearly realize that as Christians we are to love God for who He is; our love for Him should not be based on what He does or doesn’t do in our lives. We must love Him for what He has already done by providing salvation for us through the sacrifice of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who willingly died in our place and took upon Himself the full wrath that was intended for all of us because of our sins! What amazing love!
Sometimes we forget just how encouraging and living and active God’s Word really is and how it can address exactly what we are going through at the moment our lives start falling apart. But we must choose to trust Him and not become bitter and angry. We must cast our cares on Him and never forget that He is in control and aware of everything that is happening. We must also keep in mind that because sin entered the world when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, therefore sickness, death, and the evil, hurtful choices that people make by the acts of their own free will, are the consequences of that one sin. So, we must not blame God for the evil that befalls us at the hands of others. He is there waiting to pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and to renew our minds with the truth of His Word, and to comfort us and heal us emotionally –IF we choose to turn to Him.
If someone has wronged you, express your hurt and anger that is within your broken and shattered heart to God. Make the choice to forgive the person before Him with your will and not based on your feelings, even if the time never comes for that person to express any sorrow to you for hurting you. Sadly, for some of us that day may never come when we hear the words, “I’m sorry.” Therefore, we are only hurting ourselves if we choose to store up bitterness and anger within our hearts.
Maybe you have been passed over time and time again for that much deserved promotion. Or maybe you have unjustly lost your job. Or it could be that you have taken a stand for what is Biblical and your warnings have been ignored and you have been made to feel as if you have no idea what you are talking about. Whatever you are going through, God’s Word will always bring you comfort, peace, encouragement and direction.
God’s Word also brings conviction, as well, which may be hard to receive at first, but if we are truly a child of God we should appreciate His loving discipline. If we choose to submit to His discipline, we will see how He will give us His strength to overcome sinful habits and cleanse us in order to use us for His glory. One day we will then be able to look back and appreciate how He intervened in our lives in order to prevent us from the consequences of the sin that we once clung to and refused to turn from.
And, oh, the many warnings in Scripture that God has given us to warn us about how spiritual deception and the many false teachers that will arise in the last days, and the importance of knowing His Word and testing the teachings of everyone we listen to so that we will not be deceived! These verses will also be presented to you in this daily series.
All of these important topics that I briefly mentioned to you in this post will be addressed through these daily verses to help keep you focused on the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS – Jesus Christ — and to guide you along life’s way.
For those of you who have yet to place your trust in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and glorious resurrection from the dead as providing the only way to reconcile sinful man with a thrice Holy God, and are instead continuing to wrongly believe that your good works will earn God’s acceptance, I pray that you will choose to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone, very soon! Tomorrow is promised to no one, and your eternal destiny depends upon the choice that you make concerning Jesus Christ:
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)
Please consider reading the gospel of John or the book of Romans, and pray for God to reveal His truth to you. Instead of guilt, regret, fear and sorrow, you can be forgiven for your sins — no matter what you may have done! If you choose to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, He will free you from condemnation, remove the heavy burden of sorrow and regret, and fill you with His peace that surpasses all human understanding. He will transform your thinking and your life as you spend time reading the truth of His Word, and He will use all that you have been through for His glory to reach those who are still in bondage to their sins, because they have not yet heard the good news of the Biblical gospel and made that choice to believe the truth about who Jesus Christ is and all that He accomplished for us through His sinless life, His death in our place, and His glorious resurrection from the dead,and all that His Word, the Bible, has to say.
During the first week of July I prayerfully chose Scriptures that would be encouraging for you. Then we looked at Scriptures concerning what Jesus Christ said about Himself as He spoke figuratively — not literally — to present spiritual truths about Himself, and then we continued with verses focusing on the theme of I AM the Alpha and Omega verses which gives evidence to the fact that Jesus Christ truly is God!
This week we will focus on verses that shows the love, strength, and peace that awaits you if you will choose to turn to Him in the midst of your trials and moments of despair. If you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation you have the assurance that He will never leave or forsake you! If you have not yet come to the point of realizing that you are a sinner in the eyes of a thrice Holy God, turn to Him now and receive His forgiveness and His love that awaits you. If you do, you will find real hope and true peace that surpasses all human understanding, and you will find that His grace will be sufficient to carry you through the very darkest moments of your life that we all face in one way or another. Turn to Him now.♥
Though this post may not be coming to you at the beginning of your day, depending upon where you live, here is your verse for today, that I have put in its full context for you below the picture.
1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
5 Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.
6 For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.
7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:1-10)
Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.
INTRODUCTION – FOR THOSE WHO ARE NEW TO THIS SERIES
Because there seems to be such a lack of emphasis on God’s Word these days, I wanted to start a new series that will simply focus on God’s Word. So, Lord willing, at the beginning of each and every day I will just be sharing a picture with a Bible verse or a short passage from God’s Word with you, to help you start your day off right by helping to turn you focus off of the problems in your life and on to God, who desires for you to come to Him with all of your burdens and to surrender them to Him.
Maybe some of you are going through a trial right now and you need some hope and encouragement. I am at that place right now. Reading and reflecting on the truth of God’s Word always has a way of making us realize that God is truly aware of what we are going through. He knows our thoughts and sees every tear that we may cry.
Dear Christian, we must stay in God’s Word to keep us connected to Him so that His strength will be made perfect when we are weak, and so that He can give us His grace which is always sufficient to see us through the hard times in life. I know that you know this, but when we are in the valley, so to speak, when the circumstances are so overwhelming that we just feel as if we can’t make it through another day, God’s living Word breathes new life into our weary souls and enables us to carry on in His strength.
There were times when things were so hard in my life that I felt like God had abandoned me. But those of us who truly belong to Him (because we have place our trust in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as being fully sufficient to pay for all of our sins and guilt, and know that He was also buried and that He gloriously arose from the dead for our justification), know that simply isn’t true! Jesus promised that He would never leave or forsake us! Therefore, we must live by faith and trust Him in the midst of our heartbreaking trials and difficult situations, regardless of our feelings of hurt and confusion.
After going through a very hard time in my life and realizing that I was beginning to have bitterness towards God and was starting to turn away from Him because He wasn’t doing what I had prayed, believed, and trusted that He would do, I was struck with the overwhelming reality of what a horrible thing I was doing and asked God to forgive me! I came to clearly realize that as Christians we are to love God for who He is; our love for Him should not be based on what He does or doesn’t do in our lives. We must love Him for what He has already done by providing salvation for us through the sacrifice of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who willingly died in our place and took upon Himself the full wrath that was intended for all of us because of our sins! What amazing love!
Sometimes we forget just how encouraging and living and active God’s Word really is and how it can address exactly what we are going through at the moment our lives start falling apart. But we must choose to trust Him and not become bitter and angry. We must cast our cares on Him and never forget that He is in control and aware of everything that is happening. We must also keep in mind that because sin entered the world when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, therefore sickness, death, and the evil, hurtful choices that people make by the acts of their own free will, are the consequences of that one sin. So, we must not blame God for the evil that befalls us at the hands of others. He is there waiting to pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and to renew our minds with the truth of His Word, and to comfort us and heal us emotionally –IF we choose to turn to Him.
If someone has wronged you, express your hurt and anger that is within your broken and shattered heart to God. Make the choice to forgive the person before Him with your will and not based on your feelings, even if the time never comes for that person to express any sorrow to you for hurting you. Sadly, for some of us that day may never come when we hear the words, “I’m sorry.” Therefore, we are only hurting ourselves if we choose to store up bitterness and anger within our hearts.
Maybe you have been passed over time and time again for that much deserved promotion. Or maybe you have unjustly lost your job. Or it could be that you have taken a stand for what is Biblical and your warnings have been ignored and you have been made to feel as if you have no idea what you are talking about. Whatever you are going through, God’s Word will always bring you comfort, peace, encouragement and direction.
God’s Word also brings conviction, as well, which may be hard to receive at first, but if we are truly a child of God we should appreciate His loving discipline. If we choose to submit to His discipline, we will see how He will give us His strength to overcome sinful habits and cleanse us in order to use us for His glory. One day we will then be able to look back and appreciate how He intervened in our lives in order to prevent us from the consequences of the sin that we once clung to and refused to turn from.
And, oh, the many warnings in Scripture that God has given us to warn us about how spiritual deception and the many false teachers that will arise in the last days, and the importance of knowing His Word and testing the teachings of everyone we listen to so that we will not be deceived! These verses will also be presented to you in this daily series.
All of these important topics that I briefly mentioned to you in this post will be addressed through these daily verses to help keep you focused on the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS – Jesus Christ — and to guide you along life’s way.
For those of you who have yet to place your trust in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and glorious resurrection from the dead as providing the only way to reconcile sinful man with a thrice Holy God, and are instead continuing to wrongly believe that your good works will earn God’s acceptance, I pray that you will choose to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone, very soon! Tomorrow is promised to no one, and your eternal destiny depends upon the choice that you make concerning Jesus Christ:
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)
Please consider reading the gospel of John or the book of Romans, and pray for God to reveal His truth to you. Instead of guilt, regret, fear and sorrow, you can be forgiven for your sins — no matter what you may have done! If you choose to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, He will free you from condemnation, remove the heavy burden of sorrow and regret, and fill you with His peace that surpasses all human understanding. He will transform your thinking and your life as you spend time reading the truth of His Word, and He will use all that you have been through for His glory to reach those who are still in bondage to their sins, because they have not yet heard the good news of the Biblical gospel and made that choice to believe the truth about who Jesus Christ is and all that He accomplished for us through His sinless life, His death in our place, and His glorious resurrection from the dead,and all that His Word, the Bible, has to say.
During the first week of July I prayerfully chose Scriptures that would be encouraging for you. Then we looked at Scriptures concerning what Jesus Christ said about Himself as He spoke figuratively — not literally — to present spiritual truths about Himself, and then we continued with verses focusing on the theme of I AM the Alpha and Omega verses which gives evidence to the fact that Jesus Christ truly is God!
This week we will focus on verses that shows the love, strength, and peace that awaits you if you will choose to turn to Him in the midst of your trials and moments of despair. If you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation you have the assurance that He will never leave or forsake you! If you have not yet come to the point of realizing that you are a sinner in the eyes of a thrice Holy God, turn to Him now and receive His forgiveness and His love that awaits you. If you do, you will find real hope and true peace that surpasses all human understanding, and you will find that His grace will be sufficient to carry you through the very darkest moments of your life that we all face in one way or another. Turn to Him now.♥
Though this post may not be coming to you at the beginning of your day, depending upon where you live, here is your verse for today, that I have put in its full context for you below the picture.
1 Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
3 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
5 They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
7 Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
9 They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
10 Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
11 And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
14 For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
15 If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
16 When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;
17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.
19 How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
20 As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
21 Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.
22 So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.
23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.
24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
27 For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.
28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.
INTRODUCTION – FOR THOSE WHO ARE NEW TO THIS SERIES
Because there seems to be such a lack of emphasis on God’s Word these days, I wanted to start a new series that will simply focus on God’s Word. So, Lord willing, at the beginning of each and every day I will just be sharing a picture with a Bible verse or a short passage from God’s Word with you, to help you start your day off right by helping to turn you focus off of the problems in your life and on to God, who desires for you to come to Him with all of your burdens and to surrender them to Him.
Maybe some of you are going through a trial right now and you need some hope and encouragement. I am at that place right now. Reading and reflecting on the truth of God’s Word always has a way of making us realize that God is truly aware of what we are going through. He knows our thoughts and sees every tear that we may cry.
Dear Christian, we must stay in God’s Word to keep us connected to Him so that His strength will be made perfect when we are weak, and so that He can give us His grace which is always sufficient to see us through the hard times in life. I know that you know this, but when we are in the valley, so to speak, when the circumstances are so overwhelming that we just feel as if we can’t make it through another day, God’s living Word breathes new life into our weary souls and enables us to carry on in His strength.
There were times when things were so hard in my life that I felt like God had abandoned me. But those of us who truly belong to Him (because we have place our trust in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as being fully sufficient to pay for all of our sins and guilt, and know that He was also buried and that He gloriously arose from the dead for our justification), know that simply isn’t true! Jesus promised that He would never leave or forsake us! Therefore, we must live by faith and trust Him in the midst of our heartbreaking trials and difficult situations, regardless of our feelings of hurt and confusion.
After going through a very hard time in my life and realizing that I was beginning to have bitterness towards God and was starting to turn away from Him because He wasn’t doing what I had prayed, believed, and trusted that He would do, I was struck with the overwhelming reality of what a horrible thing I was doing and asked God to forgive me! I came to clearly realize that as Christians we are to love God for who He is; our love for Him should not be based on what He does or doesn’t do in our lives. We must love Him for what He has already done by providing salvation for us through the sacrifice of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who willingly died in our place and took upon Himself the full wrath that was intended for all of us because of our sins! What amazing love!
Sometimes we forget just how encouraging and living and active God’s Word really is and how it can address exactly what we are going through at the moment our lives start falling apart. But we must choose to trust Him and not become bitter and angry. We must cast our cares on Him and never forget that He is in control and aware of everything that is happening. We must also keep in mind that because sin entered the world when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, therefore sickness, death, and the evil, hurtful choices that people make by the acts of their own free will, are the consequences of that one sin. So, we must not blame God for the evil that befalls us at the hands of others. He is there waiting to pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and to renew our minds with the truth of His Word, and to comfort us and heal us emotionally –IF we choose to turn to Him.
If someone has wronged you, express your hurt and anger that is within your broken and shattered heart to God. Make the choice to forgive the person before Him with your will and not based on your feelings, even if the time never comes for that person to express any sorrow to you for hurting you. Sadly, for some of us that day may never come when we hear the words, “I’m sorry.” Therefore, we are only hurting ourselves if we choose to store up bitterness and anger within our hearts.
Maybe you have been passed over time and time again for that much deserved promotion. Or maybe you have unjustly lost your job. Or it could be that you have taken a stand for what is Biblical and your warnings have been ignored and you have been made to feel as if you have no idea what you are talking about. Whatever you are going through, God’s Word will always bring you comfort, peace, encouragement and direction.
God’s Word also brings conviction, as well, which may be hard to receive at first, but if we are truly a child of God we should appreciate His loving discipline. If we choose to submit to His discipline, we will see how He will give us His strength to overcome sinful habits and cleanse us in order to use us for His glory. One day we will then be able to look back and appreciate how He intervened in our lives in order to prevent us from the consequences of the sin that we once clung to and refused to turn from.
And, oh, the many warnings in Scripture that God has given us to warn us about how spiritual deception and the many false teachers that will arise in the last days, and the importance of knowing His Word and testing the teachings of everyone we listen to so that we will not be deceived! These verses will also be presented to you in this daily series.
All of these important topics that I briefly mentioned to you in this post will be addressed through these daily verses to help keep you focused on the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS – Jesus Christ — and to guide you along life’s way.
For those of you who have yet to place your trust in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and glorious resurrection from the dead as providing the only way to reconcile sinful man with a thrice Holy God, and are instead continuing to wrongly believe that your good works will earn God’s acceptance, I pray that you will choose to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone, very soon! Tomorrow is promised to no one, and your eternal destiny depends upon the choice that you make concerning Jesus Christ:
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)
Please consider reading the gospel of John or the book of Romans, and pray for God to reveal His truth to you. Instead of guilt, regret, fear and sorrow, you can be forgiven for your sins — no matter what you may have done! If you choose to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, He will free you from condemnation, remove the heavy burden of sorrow and regret, and fill you with His peace that surpasses all human understanding. He will transform your thinking and your life as you spend time reading the truth of His Word, and He will use all that you have been through for His glory to reach those who are still in bondage to their sins, because they have not yet heard the good news of the Biblical gospel and made that choice to believe the truth about who Jesus Christ is and all that He accomplished for us through His sinless life, His death in our place, and His glorious resurrection from the dead,and all that His Word, the Bible, has to say.
During the first week of July I prayerfully chose Scriptures that would be encouraging for you. Then we looked at Scriptures concerning what Jesus Christ said about Himself as He spoke figuratively — not literally — to present spiritual truths about Himself, and then we continued with verses focusing on the theme of I AM the Alpha and Omega verses which gives evidence to the fact that Jesus Christ truly is God!
This week we will focus on verses that shows the love, strength, and peace that awaits you if you will choose to turn to Him in the midst of your trials and moments of despair. If you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation you have the assurance that He will never leave or forsake you! If you have not yet come to the point of realizing that you are a sinner in the eyes of a thrice Holy God, turn to Him now and receive His forgiveness and His love that awaits you. If you do, you will find real hope and true peace that surpasses all human understanding, and you will find that His grace will be sufficient to carry you through the very darkest moments of your life that we all face in one way or another. Turn to Him now.♥
Though this post may not be coming to you at the beginning of your day, depending upon where you live, here is your verse for today:
Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.
INTRODUCTION – FOR THOSE WHO ARE NEW TO THIS SERIES
Because there seems to be such a lack of emphasis on God’s Word these days, I wanted to start a new series that will simply focus on God’s Word. So, Lord willing, at the beginning of each and every day I will just be sharing a picture with a Bible verse or a short passage from God’s Word with you, to help you start your day off right by helping to turn you focus off of the problems in your life and on to God, who desires for you to come to Him with all of your burdens and to surrender them to Him.
Maybe some of you are going through a trial right now and you need some hope and encouragement. I am at that place right now. Reading and reflecting on the truth of God’s Word always has a way of making us realize that God is truly aware of what we are going through. He knows our thoughts and sees every tear that we may cry.
Dear Christian, we must stay in God’s Word to keep us connected to Him so that His strength will be made perfect when we are weak, and so that He can give us His grace which is always sufficient to see us through the hard times in life. I know that you know this, but when we are in the valley, so to speak, when the circumstances are so overwhelming that we just feel as if we can’t make it through another day, God’s living Word breathes new life into our weary souls and enables us to carry on in His strength.
There were times when things were so hard in my life that I felt like God had abandoned me. But those of us who truly belong to Him (because we have place our trust in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as being fully sufficient to pay for all of our sins and guilt, and know that He was also buried and that He gloriously arose from the dead for our justification), know that simply isn’t true! Jesus promised that He would never leave or forsake us! Therefore, we must live by faith and trust Him in the midst of our heartbreaking trials and difficult situations, regardless of our feelings of hurt and confusion.
After going through a very hard time in my life and realizing that I was beginning to have bitterness towards God and was starting to turn away from Him because He wasn’t doing what I had prayed, believed, and trusted that He would do, I was struck with the overwhelming reality of what a horrible thing I was doing and asked God to forgive me! I came to clearly realize that as Christians we are to love God for who He is; our love for Him should not be based on what He does or doesn’t do in our lives. We must love Him for what He has already done by providing salvation for us through the sacrifice of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who willingly died in our place and took upon Himself the full wrath that was intended for all of us because of our sins! What amazing love!
Sometimes we forget just how encouraging and living and active God’s Word really is and how it can address exactly what we are going through at the moment our lives start falling apart. But we must choose to trust Him and not become bitter and angry. We must cast our cares on Him and never forget that He is in control and aware of everything that is happening. We must also keep in mind that because sin entered the world when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, therefore sickness, death, and the evil, hurtful choices that people make by the acts of their own free will, are the consequences of that one sin. So, we must not blame God for the evil that befalls us at the hands of others. He is there waiting to pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and to renew our minds with the truth of His Word, and to comfort us and heal us emotionally –IF we choose to turn to Him.
If someone has wronged you, express your hurt and anger that is within your broken and shattered heart to God. Make the choice to forgive the person before Him with your will and not based on your feelings, even if the time never comes for that person to express any sorrow to you for hurting you. Sadly, for some of us that day may never come when we hear the words, “I’m sorry.” Therefore, we are only hurting ourselves if we choose to store up bitterness and anger within our hearts.
Maybe you have been passed over time and time again for that much deserved promotion. Or maybe you have unjustly lost your job. Or it could be that you have taken a stand for what is Biblical and your warnings have been ignored and you have been made to feel as if you have no idea what you are talking about. Whatever you are going through, God’s Word will always bring you comfort, peace, encouragement and direction.
God’s Word also brings conviction, as well, which may be hard to receive at first, but if we are truly a child of God we should appreciate His loving discipline. If we choose to submit to His discipline, we will see how He will give us His strength to overcome sinful habits and cleanse us in order to use us for His glory. One day we will then be able to look back and appreciate how He intervened in our lives in order to prevent us from the consequences of the sin that we once clung to and refused to turn from.
And, oh, the many warnings in Scripture that God has given us to warn us about how spiritual deception and the many false teachers that will arise in the last days, and the importance of knowing His Word and testing the teachings of everyone we listen to so that we will not be deceived! These verses will also be presented to you in this daily series.
All of these important topics that I briefly mentioned to you in this post will be addressed through these daily verses to help keep you focused on the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS – Jesus Christ — and to guide you along life’s way.
For those of you who have yet to place your trust in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and glorious resurrection from the dead as providing the only way to reconcile sinful man with a thrice Holy God, and are instead continuing to wrongly believe that your good works will earn God’s acceptance, I pray that you will choose to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone, very soon! Tomorrow is promised to no one, and your eternal destiny depends upon the choice that you make concerning Jesus Christ:
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)
Please consider reading the gospel of John or the book of Romans, and pray for God to reveal His truth to you. Instead of guilt, regret, fear and sorrow, you can be forgiven for your sins — no matter what you may have done! If you choose to place your trust in Him, He will free you from condemnation, remove the heavy burden of sorrow and regret, and fill you with His peace that surpasses all human understanding. He will transform your thinking and your life as you spend time reading the truth of His Word, and He will use all that you have been through for His glory to reach those who are still in bondage to their sins, because they have not yet heard the good news of the Biblical gospel and made that choice to believe the truth of God’s Word.
Here is your verse for today:
Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.
Desiring for God to use all that I have been through in life, I decided to start my first blog, living4hisglory.wordpress.com, in order to write poems about some of those experiences to bring glory to God, as well as to share them with others with the hope of encouraging those of you who have been broken and shattered by life's circumstances and hurt by those who were supposed to have loved you rather than abuse you in some way.
Also, because of some pastors and teachers today who seem to be abandoning Biblical Christianity and instead seem to be either seeking to build their own empires and promoting their own agendas, and at times even leading the people in their churches into unbiblical, 'mystical practices' without some people even realizing it, I saw the importance and necessity to begin writing poems and posts in order to inform Christians, as well as to make Christians realize the extreme importance of testing what people say (who claim to speak for God) against the truth of God's Word, (Acts 17:11) so that they will not be deceived. It has never been -- nor shall it ever be -- my intention to bash any particular pastor or teacher; my sole purpose in bringing attention to false teachings is to make Christians realize that we are to be followers of Jesus Christ, and not to be followers of any man (or woman) and his (or her) ministry. I hope that you will be blessed -- as well as challenged -- by the things that I write.
NOTE: COMMENTS ON ALL POSTS CLOSE ONE MONTH AFTER THEY ARE PUBLISHED.
Thank you for stopping by and taking time to read some of my posts and poems.
God Bless You
~Mary - Living4HisGlory
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Mary K. Dalke and Living4HisGlory Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
NOTE: Any adds that may be displayed on my blog have not been chosen or approved by me; I can't even see any adds that WordPress chooses to post here.
Desiring for God to use all that I have been through in life, I decided to start my first blog, living4hisglory.wordpress.com, in order to write poems about some of those experiences to bring glory to God, as well as to share them with others with the hope of encouraging those of you who have been broken and shattered by life's circumstances and hurt by those who were supposed to have loved you rather than abuse you in some way.
Also, because of some pastors and teachers today who seem to be abandoning Biblical Christianity and instead seem to be either seeking to build their own empires and promoting their own agendas, and at times even leading the people in their churches into unbiblical, 'mystical practices' without some people even realizing it, I saw the importance and necessity to begin writing poems and posts in order to inform Christians, as well as to make Christians realize the extreme importance of testing what people say (who claim to speak for God) against the truth of God's Word, (Acts 17:11) so that they will not be deceived. It has never been -- nor shall it ever be -- my intention to bash any particular pastor or teacher; my sole purpose in bringing attention to false teachings is to make Christians realize that we are to be followers of Jesus Christ, and not to be followers of any man (or woman) and his (or her) ministry. I hope that you will be blessed -- as well as challenged -- by the things that I write.
NOTE: COMMENTS ON ALL POSTS CLOSE ONE MONTH AFTER THEY ARE PUBLISHED.
Thank you for stopping by and taking time to read some of my posts and poems.
God Bless You
~Mary - Living4HisGlory
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Mary K. Dalke and Living4HisGlory Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
NOTE: Any adds that may be displayed on my blog have not been chosen or approved by me; I can't even see any adds that WordPress chooses to post here.
Mary Dalke - Living4HisGlory
Living4HisGlory 