Pretty light pink poinsettias
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Thanks!
You think your word or deed is very small, That what you say will hardly count at all; But God can take the seed that you have sown And nourish it until it’s fully grown. —Hess
We sow the seed—God produces the harvest.
How others handle justice May not be up to me; But when I react to others, I must show integrity. —Branon Life is not fair, but God is always faithful.Our Daily Bread
Oh, to be filled with His life divine,
Oh, to be clothed with His power and might;
Oh, to reflect my dear Savior sublime,
Always to shine as the saints in light! —Anon.
A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation. —Psalm 68:5
When our youngest son joined the Army, we knew that challenges lay ahead. We knew that he would face danger and be tested physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We also knew that in some ways our home would never fully be his home again. In the months leading up to his departure, my wife and I steeled ourselves for these challenges.
Then the day came when Mark had to report. We hugged and said our goodbyes, and then he walked into the recruiting station, leaving me with a moment for which I was decidedly unprepared. The pain of that hard goodbye felt unbearable. At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I can’t remember when I have wept as hard as I did that day. The hard goodbye, and the sense of loss it delivered, cut me to the heart.
In such moments, I am thankful to have a heavenly Father who knows what it is to be separated from a beloved Son. I am thankful to have a God who is described as “a father of the fatherless, a defender of widows” (Ps. 68:5). I believe that if He cares for the orphaned and the widows in their loneliness, He will also care for me and comfort me—even in those moments when I face the struggles that accompany hard goodbyes. —Bill Crowder
When our loved ones say goodbye
And we have to be apart,
God can fill our loneliness
With His presence in our heart. —Sper
Loneliness comes when we forget about the One who is always with us.
Lord, help us trust You all the time—Sper
Regardless of what comes our way,
Accepting from Your goodness that
You always have the final say.
Admitting that we’re guilty,—Sper
Acknowledging our sin,
Then trusting in Christ’s sacrifice
Will make us clean within.
One day when Heaven was filled with His praises
One day when sin was as black as could be
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin
Dwelt among men, my example is He
Word became flesh and the light shined among us
His glory revealed
Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming
Oh glorious day, oh glorious day
One day they led Him up Calvary’s mountain
One day they nailed Him to die on a tree
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected
[ From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/c/casting-crowns-lyrics/glorious-day-(living-he-loved-me)-lyrics.html ]
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He
Hands that healed nations, stretched out on a tree
And took the nails for me
One day the grave could conceal Him no longer
One day the stone rolled away from the door
Then He arose, over death He had conquered
Now He’s ascended, my Lord evermore
Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him
From rising again
One day the trumpet will sound for His coming
One day the skies with His glories will shine
Wonderful day, my Beloved One, bringing
My Savior, Jesus, is mine
"And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced…" -Zechariah 12:10
"…Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:" - Luke 24:46
John the Baptist wore camel's hair and ate locusts and wild honey (Matt 3:4). And by the Spirit, John recognized the true purpose of Jesus of Nazareth from the beginning, before Jesus' ministry had even started. John introduced Jesus to the crowds in John 1:29, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John understood. He got it.
After his resurrection, Jesus met two men on the road to Emmaus, and he expected them to already understand through the Scriptures that Christ was meant to suffer and die. "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself," (Luke 24:26-27).
We would all have loved to be there on the road to Emmaus that day, walking with the resurrected Jesus himself as he detailed the different prophecies that concerned his death and resurrection. Still, the apostles and other New Testament writers do a good job of filling us in. The Old Testament is filled with prophecies and types of Jesus' suffering and death and resurrection as payment for the sins of the world, and the New Testament points those out.
Psalm 16:8-11
Simon Peter starts out on the day of Pentecost explaining that Jesus the Messiah had risen from the dead, "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it," (Acts 2:24). Peter then pulled from the Psalms to prove the truth of his testimony.
"For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
"Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses." -Act 2:24-32
Psalm 22:
The sacrifice and resurrection of the Messiah are throughout the Old Testament. Psalm 22, written by King David a millennium before Christ, gives us the very perspective of the Lord hanging on the cross. It describes how the people mocked Christ (Psalm 22:7-8; Mat 27:41-43), how they cast lots to divide up his clothes (Psalm 22:18;Mat 27:35), how his bones were out of joint (Psalm 22:14), how the wicked had surrounded him and pierced his hands and feet (Psalm 22:16) – the scars of which Thomas later got to touch and feel (John 20:27). Psalm 22 ends by saying God's righteousness would be declared to "a people that shall be born" (Psalm 22:31).
The Sign of Jonah:
The Bible is also full of types and foreshadowings. Jesus Christ is throughout the Old Testament in a variety of details. For instance, before his death and resurrection, Jesus offered simply the "sign of Jonah" as a foreshadowing of how long he would be dead.
"For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." - Matt 12:40
Isaiah 53:
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 offers one of the most profound prophecies in the entire Old Testament, written over 700 years before Christ's death and resurrection.
"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."- Isaiah 53:3-6
Some have argued that this passage refers to Israel, but in the context that explanation makes little sense. Isaiah clearly says in verse 53:8, "for the transgression of my people was he stricken." That is, "he" stands in contrast to Israel, Isaiah's people.
In the next verse, Isaiah says: "And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth."
It cannot be said of Israel that there was no deceit in her mouth.
On the other hand, Jesus was crucified between two thieves (Mark 15:27), and yet was buried in the grave of Joseph of Arimathaea, a wealthy man with enough standing to go ask Pilate for Jesus' body (Mark15:43-46).
In Isaiah 53:10, we get a hint at a resurrection, because after his soul is made "an offering for sin" he will then "prolong his days."
In the end, Isaiah says in verse 12 that God would reward this righteous servant (numbered with the transgressors, but not one himself), "he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."
Our Redeemer Lives:
In the oldest book of the Bible, written even before Moses wrote the Pentateuch, Job prophesied from the ash heap where he suffered. He declared in verses 19:25-26:
"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."
Passover:
These prophecies are just the beginning, of course. Exodus 12:1-28 describes the feast of Passover. It was set up as a type of Christ, one that gave the Hebrews an understanding of the use of a perfect lamb as a sacrifice, the blood of which would protect those under it from the wrath of God, the angel of death. The Jews were to prepare for the feast by removing all leaven from their homes, symbolic of removing sin from their lives.
Paul the scholar writes in 1 Corinthians 5:7, "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."
The Pure Spotless Lamb:
Peter describes how we are saved by "the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." Just as John the Baptist understood, Jesus was the fulfillment of the Levitical system of blood sacrifice (e.g. Lev 8-9). Jesus was the true spotless lamb whose blood could take away sins. The sacrifice of bulls and goats could never take away sin, as the writer of Hebrews noted in verses 10:4-5, quoting Psalm 40:6:
"For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:"
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of humanity was not an afterthought of God. It was always the plan from the beginning. Revelation 13:8 calls Jesus, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
Throughout the Law and the Prophets, God revealed His eternal plan of redemption to mankind. In advance, He described the sacrifice and resurrection of the Messiah. It was a plan He had purposed before He had even formed humanity. He then accomplished it, and through Jesus Christ we have the victory now and forever.
Praise the King!
"He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it." - Isaiah 25:8
In heaven we'll see our savior
And like Him we will be;
We'll praise Him and we'll serve Him
For all eternity!
Lord, set a guard upon my lips,—Hess
My tongue control today;
Help me evaluate each thought
And watch each word I say.
In Christ we’re rich beyond belief
With wealth the world cannot see;
We have new strength and character,
New righteousness and purity.
God’s Word provides the nourishment
That every Christian needs to grow,
Supplying strength from day to day
By teaching what we need to know.
All God's testings have a purpose -Zoller
Someday you will see the light;
All He asks is that you trust Him,
Walk by faith and not by sight.
You have been saved by God's grace. —Eph_2:5
Read slowly and carefully Paul's description of what God has done for you: "When you were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self, God made you alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins. He canceled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross. God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority. With the cross, he won the victory and showed the world that they were powerless" (Col_2:13-15 ).
As you look at the words above, answer this question. Who is doing the work? You or God? Who is active? You or God? Who is doing the saving? You or God?
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
"Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven! For His mercy endures forever."
It's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.
"Want to see a miracle? Plant a word of love heartdeep in a person's life. Nurture it with a smile and a prayer, and watch what happens.
An employee gets a compliment. A wife receives a bouquet of flowers. A cake is baked and carried next door. A widow is hugged. A gas-station attendant is honored. A preacher is praised.
Sowing seeds of peace is like sowing beans. You don't know why it works; you just know it does. Seeds are planted, and topsoils of hurt are shoved away.
Don't forget the principle. Never underestimate the power of a seed."
Can we really know whether to label life’s circumstances as good or bad?
For instance, your car breaks down right before you are to take a family road trip. But when you take the car to the shop, the mechanic says, “Good thing you didn’t take this out on the road. It could have caught fire.” Is that bad because of the inconvenience, or good because of God’s protection?
Or perhaps your child decides to pursue interests that aren’t all that interesting to you. You wanted her to play basketball and run track in high school. But she wanted to sing and play the oboe. You feel frustrated, but she excels and ends up with a music scholarship. Is that bad because your dreams weren’t fulfilled, or good because God directed her in ways you could not have predicted?
Sometimes it’s hard to see how God is working. His mysteries don’t always reveal their secrets to us, and our journey is often redirected by uncontrollable detours. Perhaps God is showing us a better route.
To make sure we benefit from what might seem bad, we must recognize and trust God’s “unfailing love” (Ps. 13:5 NIV). In the end, we’ll be able to say, “I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me” (v.6 NIV). —Dave Branon
The circumstances in our lives
Seem random and unplanned;
But someday we will surely see
The order of God’s hand. —Sper
We may not be able to control events, but we can control our attitude toward them.
