Forgiveness

If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
Matthew 18:15 New International Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
Do you understand forgiveness?
The right thing to do is so hard to do sometimes. It is so much easier to just add gossip, to mention another’s wrong against you to others, to pass around innuendos, sometimes to just openly spread bad words and gossip about them. But only one thing is the right thing to do according to the Word of God. Go to the person who has wronged you and try to keep the damage contained to just the two of you. Humble yourself before them and seek reconciliation, whether you were at fault or not isn’t the point. The point is containment and reconciliation. After all, God has given us the ministry of reconciliation hasn’t He? Then, as God forgave your sin, forgive theirs and wipe it out just as you would want them to do the same for you. God says in His Word that “Who you forgive, He forgives also.”

MY PRAYER…
Lord God Almighty, forgive my foolish and selfish ways. Through Your Holy Spirit, help me to be as forgiving as You are. Give me courage to lovingly confront those who have sinned against me, but even if I cannot bring about reconciliation, help me to forgive them just as You have forgiven me. Through Jesus, My Lord and the One who forgave me while I was yet a sinner, I pray.
Amen

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The Blood of Jesus?

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:7 New King James Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE(s)…
How are we cleansed from sin? The Bible says we are cleansed from sin by the Blood of Jesus! There is NO other way! This happens when we extend our faith to trust in God’s grace and walk in the light. That means that we are walking in fellowship with God’s Son Jesus daily. Not anything else will work. The more we walk in faith, in the light of His Word, and the more we fellowship with one another, the more He will have fellowship with us. And while Jesus’ death was a “once for all,” the cleansing power of His Blood goes on and on as long as our hearts are in tune with His and we walk in the light of His grace. We do not have to have Jesus get back on the cross for us again, we just walk in fellowship with Him and in faith let Him renew our minds. God said He would impute our faith as if it were righteousness so that we become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We become what we are not and could not ever be on our own! Only through Christ Jesus, there is NO other way! Have you been cleansed by the Blood of Jesus?

MY PRAYER…
Holy Father, Loving Father, thank You for the gift of Jesus and the cleansing power of His blood, shed through His death on the cross. Help me today to live a more dedicated life, to understand and receive the cleansing and renewing that His blood, through His death has made possible. Thank you for the assurance that as I seek Your will for my life and live out Your plan for my life You have, through Jesus, also forgiven me of my sins and cleansed me with His blood and made me a new creature in Christ Jesus . In Jesus’ name I pray and offer You all thanks and glory forever.
Amen

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Whose hands hold your life?

Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
John 10:28-30 New International Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
“He’s got the whole world in His hand.” God holds His children of faith in His hand. As long as they place their lives and their trust in Him, no one or nothing can steal them away. Whose hands hold your life? The Devil may think he has control of you and it may even seem like it from time to time. But, if you have given your life to the Lord then there is no way the Devil can snatch you away from Jesus. You have a choice, it’s up to you! You can put your life in God’s hands through Jesus or you can remain of and with the world and perish with it as it perishes through the works of the Devil…the choice is yours entirely. But God tells you in His Word to choose Life! Whose hands hold your life?

MY PRAYER…
Oh Lord, thank You for Your steadfast and secure love. Thank You for the assurance that my future rests in Your hands. Thank You for holding me in Your protective grace. May I live today with confidence and joy knowing that no matter where I find myself, You are there to uphold and sustain me. For I have been given eternal life, sin no longer has dominion over me because I am no longer under the law, but now I am under Your grace. For those who are led by Your Spirit are not under the law, but under grace. For this grace, I thank You in Jesus’ name.
Amen

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Random Acts of Kindness versus Intentional Acts of Love

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man.
Colossians 4:5-6 New King James Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
For Christians there are no such things as random acts of kindness, only intentional acts of love given the opportunity to happen. This is true not just in deeds, but in words as well. But more than trying to avoid poor speech, we are urged to use our speech to bless and help others to come to know Christ. We are to always be full of the Word so that we have a answer to any question, an answer that lines up with the Word of God and not a worldly answer, not an answer that is of a doctrine of men, but of the doctrine of Christ. We are to “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15) Always be prepared with a Godly answer. The question is this: “Do you do random acts of kindness, or intentional acts of love?”

MY PRAYER…
Father, forgive me for the careless words I have uttered this week. I understand that these careless words are twice sins — a sin once when I committed it and a sin a second time because I didn’t see the opportunity to be redemptive right away. Open my eyes Lord so that I may see whom You have placed in my path to witness to. Lord, help me through Your Holy Spirit to have the correct words and the wisdom to know how and when to speak. Lord, use me as your oracle, help me to speak as lead by Your Spirit and not by my mind or the circumstances at the time.
In the name of Jesus I pray.
Amen

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Is Your Name Written In The Lamb’s Book of Life?

Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Acts 2:41 King James Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
Think about it, can you imagine a man who, just days before, had denied that he even knew Jesus. He gets filled with the Holy Spirit and fire (an experience that is subsequent to, happens after, the new birth), stands up and preaches his first sermon and 3,000 people repent and call on Jesus to be their Lord! How would they have received the Word unless they heard it? How will they hear the Word unless we preach it? How can we preach the Word to them that need to receive it, unless we first receive it, are filled with the Holy Spirit and fire, and obey the commission from Jesus to go. If we remain inside the four walls of our church building and don’t go out how will they hear? We can’t expect the unsaved to come into church to hear us preach the Word to them. Jesus said to GO into ALL the world and make disciples of all nations! Two thirds of God’s name is “go”! We have to go and tell them, just like Peter went out of the upper room into the town square and preached the ‘Gospel’ to them that would receive. Peter wasn’t Pastor Peter or Reverend Peter, or 1st Pope Peter when he went out and told the people about the Gospel. He was just a believer, a disciple (a student) of Jesus, baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire that Jesus promised us and told us to receive before we went out. A baptism that is subsequent to believing! It is something received beyond and after the ‘new birth’. “Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Zec 4:6 KJV) Have you told anyone about Jesus today? Is your name in the book of life through Christ Jesus?

MY PRAYER…
Father, we ask You in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, to change our hearts Lord. Help us to have the compassion that You have for the lost, for those that don’t know the way home to You. Help us to become bold through the infilling of Your Holy Spirit, just like on the day of Pentecost. Lord, baptize us with Your Holy Spirit and with Fire, that we may become bold in the spirit for You. Just like the boldness that overtook Peter and saw 3,000 added to Your Kingdom in one preaching! Father, we give ourselves unto You this day, from this day forward to do Your will and Your Plan, Your way. In Jesus’ Mighty name.
Amen

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Cleansed by the Blood of Jesus!

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:7 King James Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE(s)…
How are we cleansed from sin? My Bible says we are cleansed from sin by the Blood of Jesus! Not by anything we (you or I) can do on our own! Not by anything the church or elders or priest does. We are cleansed when we extend our faith to trust in God’s grace and then walk in the light through Jesus. When we believe with our heart and confess with our mouth Jesus as our Lord and then let Him guide & direct our lives. That’s what a Lord does, they control your lives. The light that is the Truth given us in the Word of God then directs our paths. The more we walk in faith, in the light of His Word, and the more we fellowship with one another, the more He will have fellowship with us. And while Jesus’ death was a “once for all,” the cleansing power of His Blood goes on and on and on as long as our hearts are in tune with His and we walk in the light of His grace. I am cleansed by the Blood of Jesus, are you?

MY PRAYER…
Holy Father, Loving Father, thank You for the gift of Jesus and the cleansing power of His blood, shed through His death on the cross for me. Help me today to live a more dedicated life, to understand and receive the cleansing and renewing that His blood through His death has made possible. Thank you for the assurance that as I seek Your will for my life and live out Your plan for my life, You have, through Jesus, also forgiven me of my sins and cleansed me with His blood and made me a new creature in Christ Jesus . In Jesus’ name I pray and offer You all thanks and glory forever.
Amen

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You Are the Righteousness of God in Jesus!

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 New International Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
Righteousness: “To be in right standing with God.” Why? Because you are so good, never do anything bad or wrong? Because you’ve never broken the law? Because you go to church every Sunday? No way! Nothing you could ever of yourself do would make you righteous before God. It took Jesus, the Son of the Living God, to be our righteousness. That’s right, without Him we are nothing! We are what we are because of Jesus and His Blood that was shed for us on God’s Heavenly Altar. Know and then we need to dare to boldly declare what the scriptures say you are in Him:

(2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV) For he hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
(Ephesians 4:24 KJV) And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
(2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Are you born again of the Spirit of God, then you have put on the new man. God’s righteousness, that’s what the scriptures say, not what I say. We are the testimony of how holy, just, and gracious He truly is, because in Jesus, we become God’s righteousness! We are to be the image of God to the world. Are you the Righteousness of God in Jesus? I am the righteousness of God! Go ahead, say it!

MY PRAYER…
Thank You, Father, for making me righteous through the blood of Your Son. As I consecrate myself unto You, I know that You are at work in me, sanctifying me, setting me apart for Your use. May people see in me a reflection of Your holiness, justice, love, grace and mercy. Through Jesus, who sacrificed Himself for my sins, that I may be the righteousness of God in Him, I pray.
Amen

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Jesus bore it ALL for you!

He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:5-6 New International Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
I don’t know how Jesus could stand up under the weight. He had my sin, your sin, the world’s sin for all of time, all placed upon Him so we would not have to bear the consequences of it. But in that sacrifice, as horrible as it was, we find ourselves healed, cured (past tense here folks!) of every sickness and disease known to mankind today and all those yet to be named. But most important of all we were cured (past tense) of the most awful disease known to mankind, a sin-sick soul. Can you imagine what it must have been like to have ALL the sin, sickness, disease, and iniquity of the world, past, present, and future, placed upon His body at one time. And this, so that we would not have to bear it ourselves. In its place, He has left us a transforming peace that passes all understanding. The ability to walk in divine health, to be prosperous in all we do, and most importantly to be the righteousness of God through Him. And ALL of this is already done, we don’t have to wait for Him to do it! It’s DONE! We just have to reach out and receive the Gift of God into our lives. Jesus bore ALL your sin, sickness. disease, and poverty!

MY PRAYER…
Father of all mercy and grace, fill my soul with the wonder of Your grace. Let me not forget the precious cost of Your love. Stir within me the constant and abiding memory of Your redemptive grace. Help me, Father, to be always conscious of the price paid for me at Calvary that day. Thank you Lord Jesus for all You have done for me.
In Jesus’ name I pray.
Amen

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Have you received The Messiah?

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and he carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53:3-4 New International Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
The prophet Isaiah spoke of what Jesus would become and do for us many many years before He actually did it. Jesus was everything that God was and yet He became as a man (He laid aside His Deity) to help us, to become our example of how to live before God. The prophet Isaiah said we didn’t even notice what He did for us. It was as if we did care what He did. His own people even rejected Him and then had Him crucified. They just assumed He deserved it, and so they did not even repent of their deeds. Their Messiah came to them in answer to their prayers, but they saw Him not because their hearts were hard, their eyes were blind, and their ears didn’t hear what He had to say to them. And so then they murdered Him. But there was something about that sacrificial story that finally grabs our hearts and calls us home and we find in Him not only a Savior, but first a Lord, then a Healer, a Deliverer, a Friend, and a Servant and finally He is our Savior.
Have you received The Messiah, Jesus as your Lord?

MY PRAYER…
Almighty Father, Your plan to redeem me takes my breath away. It suspends me in complete awe. You took the most highly prized possession in heaven and sacrificed Him for me. How and why You chose to take Your precious Son and expose Him to such public disgrace and humiliation I will never comprehend. But this I do know: You love me with an everlasting love, a love that goes beyond my comprehension. I pledge to You that I will serve You with all of my body, mind, soul, and my strength in thanks for His great sacrifice. Father, take me and use me for Your Glory. Lord make the changes in me that are necessary for me to become a vessel that You can use for Your glory. Through Jesus name, I pray.
Amen

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The “Greatest Lawyer of all time!”

Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Hebrews 1:3 King James Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
Jesus was God with us. No imitation, no look alike, no knock off, or clone. He was, “The Word made Flesh”, God with us (Emmanuel). To this day, He sustains creation with His word — so much for “Mother Nature.” But now “God with us” (Emmanuel) has paid for our sins and is not just God with us, but God for us at the Father’s side. He sits at the Father’s side to ever make intercession for the saints (those who are the ones who believe in Him and have a day to day personal relationship with Him, not those who just know about Him). We who believe in Jesus are all saints, not just those that certain religions have canonized and called saints. We (ALL Believers in Jesus ) are saints to God. And Jesus (God), He turns to the Father and says: “Father, Pastor Duane (insert your name here if Jesus is your Lord), He’s one of mine Dad, I paid for him! He’s covered by My Blood.” He’s innocent of every charge the Devil brings against him. The debt has been fulfilled his sin has been removed, washed away by My Blood forever! Do you have the “Greatest Lawyer of all time” on your side?

MY PRAYER…
Precious Lord, as You have so many times in the past, take my humble human words and bring them to the Father as my friend, my mediator, and my brother. Thank You for Your sacrifice, which gave me my total salvation (body mind and soul). Thank You for Your sustaining presence in our universe. Thank You for Your daily intercession on our behalf. Thank You for being God for me at the Father’s side and God in me here on earth. To the glorious, majestic, and holy God, who sent Jesus as my Savior, be glory, honor, and adoration forever and ever, in Jesus’ Name.
Amen

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