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Welcome to the word of God online
July 23, 2009
Scripture verse of the day: acts 19:11.
And God gave Paul the power to do unusual miracles.
Scripture reading of the day: Matthew 16:24 — 27; Luke 14:27 — 35.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, (if anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who keeps his life for himself shall lose it; and anyone who loses his life for me shall find it again. What profit is there if you gain the whole world — and lose eternal life? What can be compared with the value of eternal life? For I, the son of man kind, shall come with my angels in the glory of my father and judge each person according to his deeds.
Luke 14:27 — 35 and no one can be my disciple, who does not carry his own cross and follow me.
But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates, and then checking to see if he has enough money to pay the bills? Otherwise he might complete only the foundation before running out of funds. And then how everyone would laugh!
“‘See that fellow there?’ They would mock. He started that building and ran out of money before it was finished!’
“Or what King would ever dream of going to war without first sitting down with his counselors. In discussing whether his army of 10,000 strong enough to defeat the 20,000 men who are marching against him? If the decision is negative, then while the enemy troops are still far away, he will send the truce team to discuss terms of peace.
“So no one can become my disciple unless he first sits down and counts his blessings — and then renounces them all for me!
“What good is all that is lost in saltiness? Flavorless salt is fit for nothing — not even fertilizer. It is worthless and must be thrown out. Listen well, if you would understand my meaning.”
Scripture readings are from the Living Bible.
Sam’s response.
Paul asked in acts 9:6 — what do you want me to do?
So what does God want us to do? God wants us to yield and yield and yield some more to his will. We must lay down what we want and pick up our cross and walk the path that Jesus is laid out for us.
Our faith is not obtained by struggling and working in longing. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 — come to me, all you who are labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
I don’t think many of us really understand the cost or have counted this cost, and the price that Jesus paid on the cross. As Jesus pointed out in the above scripture he was talking about the counting the cost. If you’re going to construct a building. They would be silly to not fully understand the costs involved can only get the foundation done and run out of money.
There is a cost to our Christianity. This cost is giving up what we want in taking on what God wants us to do. If you will ask him . He will let you know what he wants from you. The number one thing that God wants is to be loved. One of the commandments is to love God with all your heart with all your mind and with all your soul and to love others as you love God.
Love is the leading indicator of who God is. For God so loved the world that he gave…
most likely we will not always know what God is up to and what he wants us to do, but if we are willing to listen and be still. We might just hear and be directed by the Holy Spirit on what God does want us to do.
Here at the word of God online, I have not been keeping up with my daily postings. Things have gotten busy, I also suffered an attack on this site, but mostly, I have just not put God first in my day.
There is nothing more important than finding out what God wants us to do. One of the ways we are going to find that is by spending time in his presence on a daily basis and letting him be our guide in yielding to what he wants us to do. If we are too busy to listen, if we are too busy in our work, then how are we supposed to know what God wants us to do.
It begins with a relationship and a priority of putting God first in our life. I think a lot of us Christians struggle with this on a day-to-day basis, and it is easy to get away from the word, and to forget to ask God to direct our life.
The awesome thing is is that we have an amazing God, who is full of forgiveness and love. We can always come back into the presence of God, and he will openly spread his arms and say welcome back.
Thank you God for being such a loving God. Thank you Lord for all that you have in store for me today., May you open my heart and my mind and my soul to all that you have and all the goodness that you’re ready to pour into my life today. I’m sorry that I have not been as attentive to you and have pushed the priority of reading my daily Scriptures every day onto the back burner of my life. God, there is nothing greater than the relationship I have with you. Help me to CQ daily, Lord can trust you with everything I have and that you are working everything for the good. Regardless of what I see or hear, I know you are a forgiving and loving God that loves people and desires to have a relationship with each and every one of us. Amen
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