Religion and Spirituality

How do you deliver on your promise to follow Jesus?

Every person who has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior pledged to follow Him for the rest of life. But many of us soon realize that Jesus doesn’t always take the smooth path to get to His next stop. Sometimes His journey takes Him through winding roads, hills, and valleys, peaks, and mountains. Other times He travels through thorns and thistle.

Thus, following Jesus comes with challenges, but you do not have to be a victim of your circumstances. Jesus never allowed His circumstances to get the better of Him. He carried out His father’s Will despite facing many challenges. And the beauty of it is, Jesus never faltered, or wavered. He kept His promise to the father until the end.

Likewise, you and I can keep our promise to follow Jesus. But first, we have to stay focus on the path His footsteps lead us. We cannot allow ourselves to get trapped with the sideshows. For as you know quite well, Jesus has encountered more that enough sideshows in His time. But He never allowed any of them to distract Him.

For example, in John 8:3-7 He gave us a perfect demonstration of how not get distracted by sideshows. “Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, we found this woman committing adultery. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such offense is punishable by stoning. But what do You say?” They were hoping He would err, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

So, they continue to press Him. Then He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.” That was all it took to silence those who seek to distract Jesus.

Some of us may not be able to do all the great works Jesus did, but we sure can replicate His examples for our benefits.

Lord I lift Your Name on High

Worship Wednesday: 

Dear Father, forgive me when I lose sight of what is really important in life. Help me to keep my eyes focused on Your truth. Enable me to show others that you are the real treasure in life.

1 Chronicles 16:23-31 (NIV)

 Sing to the Lord, all the earth;
proclaim His salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
He is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before Him;
strength and joy are in His dwelling place.

Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name;
bring an offering and come before Him.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.
Tremble before Him, all the earth!
The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!”

 

Bless the Lord oh my soul

Worship Wednesday

Psalm 103King James Version (KJV)

Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:

Who forgives all thine iniquities; who heals all thy diseases;

Who redeemed thy life from destruction; who crowned thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies;

Who satisfies thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like an eagle’s.

The Lord executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppress.

He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

He will not always strive with us: neither will He keep His anger forever.

 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.

Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him.

For He knoweth our frame; He remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

For the wind passed over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;

To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all.

Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.

Bless ye the Lord, all ye His hosts; ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure.

Bless the Lord; all His works in all places of His dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul.

Here I am to worship

Worship Wednesday

A Call to Worship and Obedience: Psalm 95 (NWKV)

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

For the Lord is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.

The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.

Today, if you will hear His voice:
“Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,[a]
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
When your fathers tested Me;

They tried Me though they saw My work.
For forty years I was grieved with that generation,
And said, ‘It is the people who go astray in their hearts,
And they do not know My ways.’
So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’”

God’s not Dead

John 20:1-18  (NKJV)

The Empty Tomb

Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early. It was still dark. But she noticed that the stone the soldiers used to seal the tomb was off to the side. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”

So Peter and the other disciple left for the grave. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the Scripture, which He must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their homes.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene.

But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.”

Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”

She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

She turned and said to Him,[a] “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher).

Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father, but go to My brethren and tell them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had spoken these things to her.