Success is not found in a car, house, career, or money.
Success is when your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
Success is when your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
❤5
The Father planned it,
The prophets foretold it,
The disciples doubted it,
The soldiers denied it,
The empty tomb proved it,
The angels proclaimed it,
JESUS IS RISEN!
The prophets foretold it,
The disciples doubted it,
The soldiers denied it,
The empty tomb proved it,
The angels proclaimed it,
JESUS IS RISEN!
❤5
Post-Easter April challenge:
Don’t let resurrection joy fade into routine! 🔥 Keep the FIRE ALIVE! Keep FORGIVING quickly! Keep PRAYING together! Keep CHOOSING love daily! Your marriage can stay in RESURRECTION POWER all year! 💪 Rom 6:4 🌟
What resurrection habit are you keeping STRONG this week? #StrongMarriage #April
Don’t let resurrection joy fade into routine! 🔥 Keep the FIRE ALIVE! Keep FORGIVING quickly! Keep PRAYING together! Keep CHOOSING love daily! Your marriage can stay in RESURRECTION POWER all year! 💪 Rom 6:4 🌟
What resurrection habit are you keeping STRONG this week? #StrongMarriage #April
"God is love" is true. But it's not the whole truth. God is also holy. Just. Wrathful toward sin.
A theology that emphasizes love while ignoring justice is not biblical. It's therapeutic. It produces nice people, not disciples.
A theology that emphasizes love while ignoring justice is not biblical. It's therapeutic. It produces nice people, not disciples.
Following Jesus isn't a small adjustment to your life. It's a complete transformation. He never leaves a person the way He found him or her. That's the good news.
He reshapes everything. Your family life. Your friendships. Your work. Your leadership. The way you see the world. Nothing stays untouched when Christ takes hold of a life.
Jesus didn't come to affirm who you already are. He came to call you into something far greater. Real life. True life. Eternal life.
So here's the question this moment:
Are you ready to lay down your life to find the one that actually matters?
Are you ready to follow Him today?
He reshapes everything. Your family life. Your friendships. Your work. Your leadership. The way you see the world. Nothing stays untouched when Christ takes hold of a life.
Jesus didn't come to affirm who you already are. He came to call you into something far greater. Real life. True life. Eternal life.
So here's the question this moment:
Are you ready to lay down your life to find the one that actually matters?
Are you ready to follow Him today?
❤6
If you are trusting in anything besides Jesus, you are lost. Good deeds cannot close the gap caused by sin. Only Jesus' perfection is enough.
April 13: The Curious Thing about God’s Work
#Devotional
Deuteronomy 26:1–27:26; 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1; Psalm 40:1–17
Doing God’s work is a curious thing. It requires both mad rushes and patiently waiting.
Christ followers are meant to think like the psalmist did:
“I waited patiently for Yahweh, And he inclined to me and heard my cry for help” (Psa 40:1).
Yet Jesus’ followers are also meant to do His work at breakneck speed, as described in Deut 26:1, where the Israelites are told to take possession of the promised land and settle it.
We’re meant to recognize where the answers and timeframe come from: God. Giving the first of what we make to God’s work indicates this understanding:
“You shall take from the firstfruit of all the fruit of the ground that you harvest from your land that Yahweh your God is giving to you … and you shall go to the priest who is in office in those days, and you shall say, ‘I declare today to Yahweh your God that I have come into the land that Yahweh swore to our ancestors to give to us.’ Then the priest takes the basket from your hand and places it before the altar of Yahweh your God” (Deut 26:2–4).
In ancient Israel, the firstfruits wouldn’t be wasted. This sacrifice would provide the priest with a livelihood so that he could serve Yahweh by serving others.
God has asked His followers to listen and to act, but to leave the timeframe of doing both up to Him. Giving after we complete both tasks shows that we realize that God has given us all we have, and it requires us to understand the purpose of sacrifice.
Just as the Israelites were a wandering people (Deut 26:5), we were also once wandering sinners. It’s for this reason, and many others, that we must trust our God in our patience, in our speed, and with our giving.
What is God asking you to be patient about, and where should you make haste? How are you currently neglecting to give?
#Devotional
Deuteronomy 26:1–27:26; 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1; Psalm 40:1–17
Doing God’s work is a curious thing. It requires both mad rushes and patiently waiting.
Christ followers are meant to think like the psalmist did:
“I waited patiently for Yahweh, And he inclined to me and heard my cry for help” (Psa 40:1).
Yet Jesus’ followers are also meant to do His work at breakneck speed, as described in Deut 26:1, where the Israelites are told to take possession of the promised land and settle it.
We’re meant to recognize where the answers and timeframe come from: God. Giving the first of what we make to God’s work indicates this understanding:
“You shall take from the firstfruit of all the fruit of the ground that you harvest from your land that Yahweh your God is giving to you … and you shall go to the priest who is in office in those days, and you shall say, ‘I declare today to Yahweh your God that I have come into the land that Yahweh swore to our ancestors to give to us.’ Then the priest takes the basket from your hand and places it before the altar of Yahweh your God” (Deut 26:2–4).
In ancient Israel, the firstfruits wouldn’t be wasted. This sacrifice would provide the priest with a livelihood so that he could serve Yahweh by serving others.
God has asked His followers to listen and to act, but to leave the timeframe of doing both up to Him. Giving after we complete both tasks shows that we realize that God has given us all we have, and it requires us to understand the purpose of sacrifice.
Just as the Israelites were a wandering people (Deut 26:5), we were also once wandering sinners. It’s for this reason, and many others, that we must trust our God in our patience, in our speed, and with our giving.
What is God asking you to be patient about, and where should you make haste? How are you currently neglecting to give?
April 13 - Jesus on Murder: Contrast to the Rabbis
#LifeOfChrist
“‘You have heard that the ancients were told, “You shall not commit murder” and “Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court’” (Matthew 5:21–22).
With just two sentences Jesus shatters the rabbinic view of murder, which was so complacently self-righteous. Because of their externalism and legalism, the Jews had an inflated view of themselves. But Jesus destroyed that thinking with the declaration that a person guilty of anger, hatred, cursing, or defamation against another is guilty of murder and worthy of a murderer’s punishment.
All anger, hatred, etc., is incipient murder, as the apostle John writes,
“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15a).
By that biblical standard, we are all guilty of murder—after all, who has not hated someone at one time or another?
Not only does Jesus here sweep away the rubbish of the rabbinic, traditional view of murder, His total indictment blasts away any notion of self-justification so common to everyone. The way the Jews thought in Jesus’ time is identical to people’s prevalent thinking today. Even believers can feel proud that they are
“not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers” (Luke 18:11)
—and we could add “murderers.” Jesus in that parable and in this passage says we are all potentially capable of the worst sins, even murder, because of the sometimes evil attitudes of our hearts.
Not to consider the state of your heart and confess thoughts of anger and hatred, which can lead to taking someone’s life, is not to consider that the Lord can hold you guilty of murder.
Ask Yourself
What benefit is found in knowing that you and I are capable of the most heinous crimes imaginable? Does recognizing this startling piece of information have an effect on your relationship with God and your resultant manner of living?
#LifeOfChrist
“‘You have heard that the ancients were told, “You shall not commit murder” and “Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court’” (Matthew 5:21–22).
With just two sentences Jesus shatters the rabbinic view of murder, which was so complacently self-righteous. Because of their externalism and legalism, the Jews had an inflated view of themselves. But Jesus destroyed that thinking with the declaration that a person guilty of anger, hatred, cursing, or defamation against another is guilty of murder and worthy of a murderer’s punishment.
All anger, hatred, etc., is incipient murder, as the apostle John writes,
“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15a).
By that biblical standard, we are all guilty of murder—after all, who has not hated someone at one time or another?
Not only does Jesus here sweep away the rubbish of the rabbinic, traditional view of murder, His total indictment blasts away any notion of self-justification so common to everyone. The way the Jews thought in Jesus’ time is identical to people’s prevalent thinking today. Even believers can feel proud that they are
“not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers” (Luke 18:11)
—and we could add “murderers.” Jesus in that parable and in this passage says we are all potentially capable of the worst sins, even murder, because of the sometimes evil attitudes of our hearts.
Not to consider the state of your heart and confess thoughts of anger and hatred, which can lead to taking someone’s life, is not to consider that the Lord can hold you guilty of murder.
Ask Yourself
What benefit is found in knowing that you and I are capable of the most heinous crimes imaginable? Does recognizing this startling piece of information have an effect on your relationship with God and your resultant manner of living?
DAY 13: How does God’s guarantee of success to Joshua relate to us?
https://telegra.ph/DAILY-BIBLE-04-13
https://telegra.ph/DAILY-BIBLE-04-13
Telegraph
DAILY BIBLE
Reading for Today: Joshua 15:1–16:10 Psalm 45:1-5 Proverbs 14:4-5 Luke 11:29-54 Notes: Joshua 16:10 Ephraim did not drive the Canaanites from their area. This is the first mention of the fatal policy of neglecting to exterminate the idolaters (see Deut. 20:16).…
On the cross, Jesus did not accomplish partial salvation. He finished redemption!
❤3
Having a bad experience with a Christian or a local church is not a reason to avoid the Church or Christianity as a whole.
Just like having a bad experience with a nurse or a hospital is not a reason to avoid all healthcare as a whole.
God didn't mistreat you.
People did.
Just like having a bad experience with a nurse or a hospital is not a reason to avoid all healthcare as a whole.
God didn't mistreat you.
People did.
Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? - Romans 8:32 NLT #verseoftheday