Israel ...

 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Psalm 122:6

       

Shhhhh....

Just Listen.

 John 10:27 ... My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

Romans 10:17 ... So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Jeremiah 33:3 ...  Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. ❤

Plans ...

Write out plans you have for your life. Surrender them to God, committing to His desires over your own. 

[Adrian Rogers]

Proverbs 16:9 ... A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.

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The Nearness of God

More saints than Luther have felt a personal interest in the forty-sixth Psalm "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble;" thus drinking with him of the "river the streams whereof make glad the city of God." (Psalm 46:1,4) 

My soul, are you not one of them? Has not your praiseful exclamation often been, "You are NEAR, O Lord!" God is everywhere, but it is only His own children who forcibly feel, and gratefully acknowledge, and holily exhibit, not His omniscience only, but his especial and personal presence. Look at this precious truth, my soul, in connection with two or three features of your varied experience. He is a God at hand in the person of Christ. The Lord Jesus brings God very near to us. He is not only the revealed One of God, but He is in His own person really and absolutely God "He who has seen Me, has seen the Father." (John 14:9)

Could a mere creature, a man only, say this? Impossible, with any truth, and without blasphemy. Oh, how near to us has Jesus brought the Father! Come to Jesus, look at Jesus, listen to Jesus, and realize that in so doing you approach to, gaze upon, and hear the voice of, God your Father in heaven. God is near in the work of Jesus. The blood brings us sinners near to God, as it brings a sin-pardoning God near to us. "You that were afar off are made near by the blood of Christ." (Ephesians 2:13)

See then your true and present standing, O my soul! Nothing comes between you and God but the atoning blood of Jesus. His blood annihilates all your sin and guilt. Robed in His imputed righteousness, you are to God nearer than the highest angel in heaven and nearer you cannot be, and God draws near to you and speaks "A God at hand, says the Lord." (Mark 1:15)

God is near at hand when you do approach Him in prayer. Oh, comforting truth! A God at hand to hear the softest breath of prayer to listen to every confession of sin to every cry of need to every utterance of sorrow to every wail of woe to every appeal for counsel, strength, and support. 

Arise, O my soul! and give yourself to prayer; for God is near at hand to hear and answer you. Listen to His word, "Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto Me? says the Lord." "You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember You in Your ways."  A God at hand is He in every time of trouble. "A very present help." Not far have you to travel for the guidance and deliverance you need. If forsaking the Lord your God you go down into 'Egypt' for help, and trust in the chariots and horses thereof, then will you be ashamed of your confidence. But why fly to creature help, when the Lord your God is near unto you in all that you call upon Him for? 

Cease from man; for God in Christ is very near, and one step of believing prayer will bring you to His feet. Oh, live as in His presence! Be your life a life of communion, doing and enduring, toiling and suffering, as beholding Him who is invisible. In a little while we shall pass from our partial and imperfect realizations of His presence when on earth, to enjoy His full, unclouded, and eternal presence in heaven! Then shall our eyes see the King in His full unveiled beauty, not as now, through a glass darkly, but then face to face. And, oh transporting thought! we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Guard vigilantly and strive prayerfully against that which creates a conscious distance between God and your soul. Is it the world? come out of it. Is it the creature? relinquish it. Is it the flesh? mortify it. Is it sin? forsake it. Is it unbelief? nail it to the cross. 

Oh, let nothing separate you from Christ no earthly good or carnal delight cause a distance, or coldness, or shyness between God and your soul. Give Jesus your undivided heart, and let God be your all in all. Then shall your happy experience be "You are NEAR, O Lord." 

[Octavius Winslow] 

Jeremiah 23:23 ... Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?

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All Short of This is Mercy!

In order to awaken self-abasement and gratitude I should consider both what I deserve, and what blessings I have in Christ. If the righteous Lord were to deal with me according to my deserving, I would at this moment be under the rack of excruciating pain; or under the pressure of most abject poverty thus experiencing the foretaste of eternal woe. If thus dealt with in strictest justice, Death would receive his commission to hurl my affrighted soul into the gulf of endless misery, there to remain an everlasting monument of the vengeance of a holy God! All short of this is mercy! 

Do I enjoy a portion of health? It is all mercy! Am I undergoing a sanctified affliction? It is all mercy! Do I partake of the bounties of Providence? It is all mercy! Do I possess affectionate friends? It is all mercy! Do I experience the love of God in Christ, pardoning my sins, and purifying my heart? Oh! this is mercy beyond the power of language to praise or to express! 

Rejoice in such a Savior, who mercifully snatched you as a brand out of the burning! 

[Thomas Reade] 

Ephesians 2:4-5 ... But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Titus 3:5 ... Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

1 Peter 1:3 ... Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ❤

Damned by Being Self-Righteous!

There is nothing more certain than this: that you cannot be saved and keep your sins they must be parted with. No man can carry fire in his bosom, and yet be safe from burning. While you drink the poison, it must and will work death in you. The thief cannot expect mercy, while he keeps the goods he has stolen. Will you keep your sins and go to Hell or leave your sins and go to Heaven? 

Most men in their heart of hearts would like to have their sins and go to Heaven also. But that cannot be! While God is just, and Heaven is holy, and truth is precious it cannot be! What if the man does not go to Hell as a drunkard, it will not help him if he is damned by being self-righteous. So long as he is lost, I do not see that it materially matters exactly how he goes to Hell. 

Many and many a man have given up outward sin and set up a self-righteousness of his own; and said, "These are my gods!" And so, he fled from a bear, and a lion slew him; he leaned on a wall, and a serpent bit him! All sin must be cast out of the throne of the heart, and whatever righteousness that is not Christ's righteousness, must go with it. I would sincerely put the sword-point to your heart, O sinner, and say, "Give up all that opposes Christ!" For if you do not give it up, your soul will be lost! 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

2 Corinthians 10:5 ... Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

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Every Day!!

We live in a world of miracles. None of us knows God’s plan, or where life’s adventure will take us. But if the events of last Saturday make anything clear, it is that every single moment we have on earth is a gift from God. We have to make the most of every day for the people and country we love. 

 [Donald J. Trump]

Psalm 90:12 ...  So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. ❤

True Conversion

 The true Christian consists of:

1. Repentance

2. Self-denial

3. Following Christ

4. Obedience

These are nor "works."

This is what happens when a true conversion has taken place.

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of; (2 Corinthians 7:10)

He must increase, but I must decrease.  John 3:30)

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. (Matthew 4:19)

 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; (Hebrews 5:9)

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The Window ...

A young couple moved into a new house. The next morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman saw her neighbor hanging the washing outside. "That laundry is not very clean; she doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better detergent.” Her husband looked on, remaining silent. 

Every time her neighbor hung her washing out to dry, the young woman made the same comments. A month later, the young woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband, "Look, she’s finally learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?" The husband replied, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows." 

And so, it is with life. What we see when watching others depends on the clarity of the window through which we look. So don’t be too quick to judge others, especially if your perspective of life is clouded by anger, jealousy, negativity or unfulfilled desires. 

"Judging a person does not define who they are. It defines who you are." 

[Jonathan Kestenbaum]

John 7:24 ...  Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. ❤

God Bought You With a Very High Price!

Refresh in your souls a sense of the fact that "God bought you with a very high price!" There in the midnight hour, amid the olives of Gethsemane, kneels Immanuel the Son of God. He groans, He pleads in prayer, He wrestles. See the beady drops stand on His brow drops of sweat, but not of such sweat as pours from men when they earn the bread of life, but the sweat of Him who is procuring eternal life itself for us. It is blood! It is crimson blood! Great gouts of it are falling to the ground! 

O soul, your Savior speaks to you from Gethsemane at this hour, and He says: "Here and thus I bought you with a price!" Come, stand and view Him in the agony of the olive garden, and understand at what a cost He procured your deliverance! Track Him in all His path of shame and sorrow until you see Him at Gabbatha. Mark how they bind His hands and fasten Him to the whipping-post. See, they bring the scourges and the cruel Roman whips; they tear His flesh; the ploughers make deep furrows on His blessed body, and the blood gushes forth in streams; while rivulets from His temples where the crown of thorns has pierced them, join to swell the purple stream. 

From beneath the scourges, He speaks to you with accents soft and low, and says, "My child, it is here and thus I bought you with a very high price!" But see Him on the cross itself when the consummation of all has come. His hands and feet are fountains of blood, His soul is full of anguish even to heartbreak; and there, before the soldier pierces His side with a spear, bowing down He whispers to you and to me, "It was here and thus, I bought you with a very high price!" 

O by Gethsemane, by Gabbatha, by Golgotha, by every sacred name collected with the passion of our Lord; by sponge and vinegar, and nail and spear, and everything that enlarged the pain and increased the anguish of His death I implore you, my beloved brethren, to remember that you were "bought with a very high price," and that "you are not your own." 

[Charles H. Spurgeon] 

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1 Peter 1:18-19 ...  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

1 Corinthians 6:20 ... For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Acts 20:28 ... Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Titus 2:14 ... Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. ❤

Pray!!!

It's okay to pray. 

 Pray out loud.

 

Pray in a whisper. 

Pray on your knees. 

Pray in the car. 

Pray in the shower. 

 Pray in public.

 Pray in private. 

 Just PRAY.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 ... Pray without ceasing.

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