Knowing the Future

 Happy Sunday!

"When the Holy Spirit, who is TRUTH, comes, he shall guide you into all TRUTH, for he will not be presenting his own ideas, but will be passing on to you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future."(John 16:13, Living Bible).

So many people want to know the future.  Do you understand God has given you His Spirit that knows everything?  Not a fortune cookie, not a psychic, and not a horoscope but the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now gives life to our mortal bodies.(Romans 8:11).  Back in the Old Testament, Amos 3:7 says, "When the Lord God decides to do something, he will first tell his servants, the prophets."(Easy-to-Read Version).  Hebrews 1:1-3 goes even further and says, "Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature. He holds everything together by what he says—powerful Words!"(Message).

John 1:1 ties this all together, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."(KJV).  Don't miss this!  If you want to know the future get to know the Word.  The more Word you have the more revelation you will have.  Ok, I can hear you now.  "Sounds too simple", you may say.  It is simple.  God made it that way so that no one will have an excuse for not getting it.  Proverbs 14:6 says, "A scoffer seeks Wisdom in vain [for his very attitude blinds and deafens him to it], but knowledge is EASY to him who [being teachable] understands."(Amplified).  The Living Bible says it this way, "A mocker never finds the wisdom he claims he is looking for, yet it comes easily to the man with common sense". 

2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not being slow in doing what he promised—the way some people understand slowness. But God is being patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be lost. He wants everyone to change their ways and stop sinning."(Easy-to- Read Version).  Sometimes it may appear that the Word is not working, and that the future is not predictable.  But this scripture reminds us that God in merciful, and wants us to do right.  Galatians 6:7 shows the other side of the coin, "Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life."(Message).

Love and prayers, Cynthia

Childlike

 Happy Sunday!

In John 16:33, Jesus says, "I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]"(Amplified).

Most people love babies.  Well, at least we love other people's babies.  We can love on them, smell their necks, and give them back to their parents.  Have you ever noticed that the world around them can be chaotic but they can sleep as if nothing is happening?  Perhaps, that's what we really enjoy about babies...seeing peace in action.  The baby is forced to trust the people in whose care they are placed.  They must trust that their parents and care takers will be loving, compassionate, and forgiving especially when they make smelly messes.  They must trust that they will be given sufficient provision, and kept safe.

We are the Children of God, not the adults of God.  Jesus rebuked the disciples for trying to prevent the children from coming forward in the crowd to be blessed.  He said, "Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.”(Mark 10:14, Message).  Don't miss this!  It's so simple, not complicated at all.  Proverbs 3:5-8 says it this way, "Place your trust in the Eternal; rely on Him completely;  never depend upon your own ideas and inventions.  Give Him the credit for everything you accomplish, and He will smooth out and straighten the road that lies ahead. And don’t think you can decide on your own what is right and what is wrong. Respect the Eternal; turn and run from evil. If you depend on Him, your body and mind will be free from the strain of a sinful life, will experience healing and health, and will be strengthened at their core."(Voice).

Isaiah 26:3 says, "You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You."(Amplified).  The God's Word Translation of this scripture says, "With perfect peace you will protect those whose minds cannot be changed, because they trust you".  Amen.

Love and prayers, Cynthia

Winning

Happy Sunday!

Proverbs 11:30 says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise."(KJV). 

Are you winning?  Are you winning souls for Christ?  If you were arrested and taken to court, would there be enough evidence to prove your Salvation, or your Christianity?  God has called us and commissioned us.  Jesus said, "You, then, are to go and make disciples of all the nations and baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you and, remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”(Matthew 28:20, Phillips).

Are you leading others closer to God, or are you causing them to move away from God?  Jesus said, "But if anyone abuses one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for him to have a heavy boulder tied around his neck and be hurled into the deepest sea than to face the punishment he deserves!"(Mark 9:42, Passion).  Ouch!  We don't want to be on the wrong side of this scenario.  It makes sense then that the Apostle Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to, "Abstain from all appearance of evil."(1 Thessalonians 5:22, KJV).  Other translations of this scripture say, "Keep away from every kind of evil."(Living Bible).  Not that he wanted us to be disingenuous, but we have to be unselfish.  God cares about me, but it's not all about me.  You may want to read that again. 

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."(KJV).  We learned this scripture in Sunday School, but do we take time to feel the weight of it?  God loves everyone.  His love is not superficial.  It's not just a sweet thing to say, or emojis in a text message.  He put His love and His Son on the line with no guarantee the love would be accepted, or reciprocated.  He wants everyone to experience everlasting life.  In Ezekiel 33:11, "The Lord God says: By my life, I swear that I don’t enjoy seeing people die—not even evil people! I don’t want them to die. I want them to come back to me. I want them to change their lives so that they can really live."(Easy-to-Read Version).  We are here to show that love to the world, and win others for Christ.

2 Corinthians 2:14 says, "But I thank God, who ALWAYS leads us in victory because of Christ. Wherever we go, God USES us to make clear what it means to know Christ. It’s like a fragrance that fills the air."(God's Word Translation).

Love and prayers, Cynthia

Shift to High Gear

Happy Sunday!

2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him."(Message).

Dr. Veronica Winston recalled the first car she owned right after college.  It was a 1979 Toyota Corolla with manual transmission.  She beamed when she spoke of the power she felt shifting the gears, and anticipating shifting to a higher gear.  When she wanted to go further and faster, she knew she had to "shift up".  She knew that she could not stay where she was.  In the same way in life, and in our Christian Walk change is inevitable.  God wants us to advance, to increase, to prosper in every area of our lives.  He has provided His Word as a guide and given us everything we need to live a godly life.(2 Peter 1:3).  God expects us to be passionate about living for Him.  In Revelation 3:15-16, He rebuked the Laodiceans, "You’re not cold, you’re not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit."(Message).

The sermon was entitled, "Time to Shift Into High Gear".  She referenced 2 Peter 1:1-10 as her starting point.  The Apostle Peter used these beginning lines of the letter to encourage believers and remind us of all we have in Christ.  He wrote, "Because you have these blessings, do all you can to add to your life these things: to your faith add goodness; to your goodness add knowledge; to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control add patience; to your patience add devotion to God; to your devotion add kindness toward your brothers and sisters in Christ, and to this kindness add love."(2 Peter 1:5-7, Easy-to-Read Version).

The Apostle Peter goes on to say, "For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."(2 Peter 1:8, KJV).  Verse 9 gives a vivid description of the opposite.  It was so hard to pick one version to share with you.  The Phillips translation says, "The man whose life fails to exhibit these qualities is short-sighted,", the Easy-to-Read Version says, "But those who don’t grow in these blessings are blind.", the Message says, "Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books."(2 Peter 1:9). OUCH!

What we are experiencing in life right now may be unique, but it is not the first time.  It's not the first time a nation has been divided, not the first time a nation has experienced civil unrest, not the first time a new strain of virus has been discovered, and not the first time we have been given the choice and the chance to trust God. 

Love and prayers, Cynthia