Monday, June 30, 2014

God Builds Bridges

Opening his mouth Peter said, “I most certainly understand that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.” 

Acts 10:34-35

God is in the business of building bridges so that all men, women and children can come to know and worship Him.  Jesus came for all of us, and we are all welcome to ask Him to be our Lord, Master and Savior, and to be welcomed into the family of God. 

Sunday, June 29, 2014

It Is All About Faith


Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it men of old gained approval. …

By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

Hebrews 11:1-2, 31

When we are jumping to judge people, we need to consider that we do not judge as God judges.  God sees the hearts of men and women. 

Rahab was a prostitute living in Jericho.  Rahab knew God parted the Red Sea and delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and she believed that He was the True God.  When two Israelite spies ask Rahab to help them and promised her that she and her family would be safe when Jericho was overrun by the Israelites, she trusted them.

The spies escaped from Jericho, and when the City was destroyed by the Israelites, only Rahab and her family were saved.  Of all the people God could have saved, He saved Rahab, not because of her personal merits, but because she had faith in Him as the One True God. 

That is the way it is with God, no one is saved because they are good, they are saved by faith in God and His Son, Jesus.

Remember that.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Be Merciful


But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them.

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.  Now the Law of Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?”

They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him.  But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.  But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court.  Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they?  Did no one condemn you?”

She said, “No one, Lord.”  And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either.  Go.  From now on sin no more.”

John 8:1-11

May we be as merciful as Jesus.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Sing For Joy

It is good to give thanks to the Lord
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
To declare Your loving-kindness in the morning
And Your faithfulness by night,
With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp,
With resounding music upon the lyre.
For You, O Lord, have made me glad by what You have done,
I will sing for joy for the works of Your hands.

Psalms 92:1-4

Thursday, June 26, 2014

What It Takes


Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:2-8