Saturday, June 22, 2024

God Didn't Choose It

 

Salvation, God’s word, common sense and prayer are all free for the taking. If you prefer being under the spell of ungodly things, that is free also. “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get,” but know you chose it.  God didn’t choose it for you or to punish you.

Romans 1:18-25 (MSG) 18-23 But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand. 24-25 So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

6/23/2024

Saturday, June 15, 2024

Enough is Enough

 

God destroyed his people’s homes and had evil nations take them as slaves.  But not without warning after warning. He is a God of many warnings. He also will say, “Enough is enough!”  Yet if you go to God and acknowledge your sin, he is faithful to forgive and bless you.


Jeremiah 18:7-11 (TLB) 7 Whenever I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be taken up and destroyed, 8 then if that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. 9 And if I announce that I will make a certain nation strong and great, 10 but then that nation changes its mind, turns to evil, and refuses to obey me, then I, too, will change my mind and not bless that nation as I had said I would. 11 Therefore, go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem, saying: Hear the word of the Lord. I am planning evil against you now instead of good; turn back from your evil paths and do what is right.


6/16/2024

Saturday, June 8, 2024

Sacrifices of Flesh and Blood


The sacrifices God asked were of things he already owned, animals and all of the earth.  God doesn’t NEED these things back; the sacrifices were to bring awareness of his continual presence. When you know God is with you, trust him and are grateful, everything is better. 


Psalm 50:8-15 (TLB) 8 I have no complaint about the sacrifices you bring to my altar, for you bring them regularly. 9 But it isn’t sacrificial bullocks and goats that I really want from you. 10-11 For all the animals of field and forest are mine! The cattle on a thousand hills! And all the birds upon the mountains! 12 If I were hungry, I would not mention it to you—for all the world is mine and everything in it. 13 No, I don’t need your sacrifices of flesh and blood. 14-15 What I want from you is your true thanks; I want your promises fulfilled. I want you to trust me in your times of trouble, so I can rescue you and you can give me glory.

6/9/2024

Saturday, June 1, 2024

Right Here and Right Now



Know the past, but let it go to live today.  Expect something new from the Father each day because he gives you his energy and fresh ways of seeing things .  He will make a way in the desert, and floods in the wilderness as you ask him, right here and right now. 


Isaiah 43:18-19 (GNV) 18 Remember ye not the former things, neither regard the things of old. 19 Behold, I do a new thing: now shall it come forth: shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the desert, and floods in the wilderness.

6/2/2024