The Author and Finisher

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2 KJV

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
Do you look unto Jesus as the author and finisher of your faith?
If you have surrounded yourself with other believers, those of like precious faith rather than those who are of the world it will be much easier to cast aside the burdens and cares of this world (and the sins of the flesh). You can’t party Friday with the world and expect to cast aside the sins of the flesh. You also can’t be around so-called believers who don’t understand the Bible correctly or who are spouting doctrines of men instead of God’s Holy Word! If you are NOT around unbelief and sin it is much easier to run the race that Jesus has set before you. He knows the race, He knows the course, and He knows the outcome (the finish.) He wrote your life before you were born! Look unto Him and He will lead and guide you giving you the strength to finish the race. Don’t look unto the world or wolves within the church for your guidance. Jesus will give you the strength to cast aside that which would cause you to stumble and fall and to be caught up again in sin. Jesus alone is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only way unto the Father in Heaven. The Only Way! There is NO other way period!

MY PRAYER…
Holy Father, Author and Finisher of my destiny, take my life and my every breath and help me to use it for Your glory. May my words and actions from this day forward be a product of looking unto Jesus. Looking unto what He has already done for me and taking it and using it to finish my race. May all that I do in life be to the glory of Your Kingdom. In Jesus name I pray.
Amen

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Divine Nature

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2 Peter 1:4 King James Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
Have you received the divine nature of God?
God made us in His image & Likeness (character and holiness) according to His Word. We are called to participate in the divine nature of God Himself according to His Word. He has promised that if we have died with Christ in baptism, then we have been seated in heavenly places with Christ by His Spirit. We are assured that we will escape the corruption and destruction destined for the world. He is not a respecter of persons. His promises are sure. He does not lie nor change His mind. But, the condition to receiving these promises is this: If we will hearken unto His Word and follow it wholeheartedly, always, everyday, all day, then we will reap the Promises He has made to us!

MY PRAYER…
Almighty God, my Everlasting Fortress, thank You for giving me Your great and precious promises. Help me Lord to understand them and to walk them out in my life. I long to know You more fully and be able to see Your face today, just as I believe I will one day. Thank You for giving me the means to protect myself and my heart from this world’s corruption. Lord, help me by Your Holy Spirit to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. Lord help to manifest the fruits of the Spirit in my life. In all love and appreciation I pray in the name of Jesus.
Amen

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Who Are You Imitating?

Be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 5:1-2 New International Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery you can bestow on anyone. Are you imitating God? God must have wanted us to be imitators of Him, after all He created us in His image (Gen 1:26). If we are to sincerely flatter God by being like Him, we must be prepared for the cost as well. You see, love for God is never something that occurs just in our minds or our hearts. Love is something we do for another

Adoption by Jesus

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:4-6 New King James Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
Predestined to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ!
He chose us when? How long ago? Before the foundation of the world is a long long long time ago! He decided that we should be holy and without blame and decided to adopt us into His family. In order to do that He sent His Son Jesus to purchase us back from the very pit of hell. Jesus paid the price for our sin, a very costly price I might add. Jesus came and paid the price once for all (that’s one time for everyone everywhere He won’t do it again don’t ask Him to) that we might be able to live according to the Father’s good will. It is a gift, you can not earn it, all you have to do is receive it. Will you receive that gift and walk before Jesus blameless? The choice is yours to make.

MY PRAYER…
Holy Father, thank You for rescuing me from all the evil things that are in this world. Thank You Lord for Your Son and the price You paid by the Blood of Jesus. Father, I thank You that I can come boldly into Your throne room and receive mercy and grace from You. Thank You, Father, for the anguish and pain that it cost You to forgive my sins by the Blood of Your Son. Thank You that You were willing to make a way where there was no way. Thank You for giving Your very best. I pledge today that I will not take lightly the cost of ridding me of sin and will live in appreciation of Your grace. Through Him who sacrificed all for my salvation I pray. Thank You Jesus.
Amen

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Disciplined By God

And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline from the Lord), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
Hebrews 12:5-6, 8 New International Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
Have you been disciplined recently by God? Even our natural fathers disciplined us, why should we expect any less from our Heavenly Father. This does NOT mean God is a cruel mean ogre! It only means He wants the best for you because He loves you. Sometimes what He gave us to take care of is taken away because we have failed to listen to Him about how He wants us to take care of it because we have lost sight of the original purpose. When the work of the ministry becomes more about the money than about the Gospel and the Sheep, then it’s time to be disciplined. We must remember that God has only entrusted us with the care of His sheep NOT the ownership of them. Therefore if we are not doing His will as far as caring for them and feeding them, then God will take them away and give them to someone else to care for! This is also known as discipline because He loves us and His ‘Sheep’. I want to know my Father loves me, I want to know I have been made His son. Because if I am not His son and He is not disciplining me then whose son am I? There is only one other possibility and that is the Devil as a father, and I for one don’t want that. Remember Jesus told the Pharisees: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. “(John 8:44) So, whose son/daughter are you? If you are not receiving discipline from God then I would be worried if I were you.

MY PRAYER…
Most Holy God, I give You praise and glory forever. Father I thank You for Your discipline and Your love, for Your correction and chastisement. I thank You Lord that those whom You love and accept as sons, You correct. I want to be corrected by You, so that I am doing the things You would have me to do. Lord I accept Your correction and Your rebukes when necessary, but I also cherish and receive Your Fatherly love. For You do not rebuke without also sending love. In the mighty name of Jesus, Father, I give You praise and glory forever.
Amen

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Knowing The Answer
Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:55-57 New International Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE(s)…
Do you have the answer for life’s biggest test, “death”?

Victory! Ultimate Victory!! If you don’t have the answer for life’s biggest test, “death”, then you have no victory. The answer lies in the grace of God (God’s unmerited favor toward mankind) not in the letter of the law, for we are no longer under the law but under grace. The answer lies not works or in some religious ceremony or rite, but in the victory of Jesus over the devil on the cross, in the grave, and in His resurrection from the dead. The answer lies in Jesus! You must be born again through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God! You must have made Jesus, the Son of God, your Lord so that He can then become your Savior.
The Super Bowl and World Series are played every year. The champion is a victor for only one year. But a Christian, who is in Christ, is a champion forever because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. A Christian, who is in Christ, has victory over death, hell and the grave through Christ Jesus! We just need to understand it, receive it, and then apply it. Get out of your head and into your Spirit.

MY PRAYER…
Thank You Father God for giving me victory through Jesus Christ. Make His will triumphant in my daily struggles with sin. Help me, Father to live the victorious life that is already mine through Jesus. Through my Triumphant King and Savior I ask it.
Amen

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Losing Your Life

Jesus said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.
Luke 9:23-24 New International Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
Have you lost your life to Jesus yet?
So many times when I’ve tried to talk with people about giving their lives to Jesus this is what I hear: “I’ve just got to find myself first”, or “I’ve just got to get my life together”, or “I’ve just got get myself cleaned up, then I will be able to follow Jesus.” Got bad news for you, it won’t ever happen that way! We can NOT “find ourselves, or our life” by pursuing it. Got good news for you though, we find it by losing it to the calling of Jesus, one greater than ourselves. We can NOT get it together or clean ourselves up without His help and His power working in our lives. Jesus never told anyone to go get cleaned up and get your live together and then follow Me. No, He just said “come follow Me.” We find our life by taking on the work of His Kingdom. We lose our life to Him and He puts His life into us and the new life we live is Him in us. We get ourselves together and cleaned up by letting Him take control of our lives and letting His Holy Spirit work in our lives. Anything else is just a work of the flesh and will not endure for very long at all. Just surrender, it’s much easier!

MY PRAYER…
Creator, Master and Maker of all that lives and breathes, take my life and every breath I breathe and use it for Your glory. Change me Lord, let your Holy Spirit work in my life. May my life become as clay in the Master potter’s hands as Your Holy Spirit works upon my life. May all that I do in life be to the glory of Your Kingdom. In Jesus name I offer you this prayer.
Amen

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God’s Reward System

Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,
Hebrews 2:1-3 New King James Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
God’s Reward System does not work like the world’s.
God does not reward according to our transgressions and disobedience. How many of you have taken the time to think what would happen if God rewarded us according to our transgressions and disobediences? According to our performance and achievements? I don’t really think the outcome could be called a reward, for the punishment would truly be great! Well, that’s exactly what will happen to those who neglect His salvation, who refuse to believe in Jesus, who refuse to make Jesus their Lord. The punishment will be eternal damnation and hellfire. They will spend an eternity in Hell with Satan, Hell was meant for the devil and his minions not mankind. But for those of us who have gladly and willingly accepted God’s Grace and Salvation our sins and previous disobediences have been paid for. Jesus shed His blood for my sins and my disobediences, that I might have life and life more abundantly. Don’t let your opportunity slip away, call on Jesus as your Lord today, you must do this while you are still alive and in the physical body.

MY PRAYER…
Faithful Father, thank You for loving me so much. Thank You for sending Your Son to pay the price for my life. Thank You Father, that You made a way for me where there was no way, a way to walk clear of the things of this world. A way to be forgiven of all the past deeds done. A way to boldly enter into Your Throne of Grace and receive Your Mercy. Thank You that You have given me Jesus to be the Way the Truth, and the Life to me, that I might have eternal life. In Jesus name.
Amen

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God Is Love
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life, the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.
1 John 1:1-4 New King James Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…
God is love and love needs to love to someone!
Some people get the idea that God made man so He’d have someone to dominate. But God is not a dominator, He is not a cruel, punishing God either. God is love and love needs to give love to someone. That’s why God made man. He made man so He could give him His love. So man would fellowship with Him and God could be his friend! God made man something really special, He made man in His own image and likeness. Man is made in the image and the likeness of God. He is like God, but he is not God. He is made to have fellowship with God. But, God also gave man a free will, so he could choose for himself what to do. God could have given His love to the angels, and He did do that to some extent. But giving to angels didn’t provide God with total fulfillment. Why? Because the angels aren’t mankind, they aren’t made in His image and likeness. God wants to give His love to you so that your joy may be full and overflowing. The choice is yours. Will you receive His love and then give yours in return?

MY PRAYER…
Abba Father, I will never understand how You could love me so much that You would create me in Your own image. Or why You would chose to fellowship with me over the angels of heaven. But one thing I do know, and that is, You love me beyond compare. Please help me to love others as You have loved me. Help me Lord to be what You would have me to be. In Jesus name, I pray.
Amen

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Someone Stealing From You!

The thief does not come EXCEPT to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
John 10:10-11 New King James Version

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY’S VERSE…

Someone Stealing From You!
How many of you have had someone try to steal the Word from you by telling you that there are other ways to know God? They make the claim “We’re all trying to get to the same place, we just have different ways of getting there.” Or how about this one: “Well you know God doesn’t heal everyone!” I’ve had people try both and others on me. But, that’s NOT what my Bible says. My Bible says He healed them ALL. (Matt. 4:24, 12:15; Luke 4:40, 6:19) No, these people and others like them are all just thieves, sent by the devil who is, trying to steal, kill, and destroy you. These are those who have been deceived by the oldest deceiver of all, Satan himself! Some of them might even be setting beside you in Church or even claim they are Christians going to church somewhere else. A Christian is not a Christian just because they go to church, going to McDonalds doesn’t make you a hamburger does it? A Christian is someone who has made Jesus the Lord of their lives and is living a “Christ –like” life. A Christian is Christ like and knows the voice of the Lord. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and am known by my own.” John 10:14. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:” John 10:27 “I am the way, the truth, and the life: NO ONE comes to the Father, except through Me.” John 14:6. NO, there is NO other way to the Father and eternal life in Heaven except through JESUS! I didn’t say that, the Word of God (Jesus) said that! Guard your self from the deceivers in this world. They are everywhere and are in disguise. Make sure what you are hearing passes the filter test of the Word of God!

MY PRAYER…
Faithful Father, thank You for loving me so much. Thank You for sending Your only begotten Son to die for me, to take my place on the cross. Thank You Father, that You made a way for me where there was no way. Thank You that You have given me Jesus to be the Way the Truth, and the Life to me and to this dying world. Father, help us to have ears to hear and eyes to see and the wisdom to discern when the thief tries to come and steal from us. Father, I pray Lord for those who have been lied to that You will reveal the truth unto them in a way that they cannot deny it. Thank You Lord for Your everlasting Mercy.
In Jesus name.
Amen

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