While Jesus lived here on the earth, He told stories to the people to illustrate what the Kingdom was like. The bible calls these parables. A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. These parables paint visual pictures of what the Kingdom of God (or Heaven) is like. Parables, I believe, are meant to make people think. If the person is spiritually hungry, he or she will pursue God to find out the meaning, just as the disciples did when they were alone with Jesus. They would ask Him what the parables meant and He would speak plainly to them what the meaning was. He would give them the spiritual meaning.
Continue readingThe Kingdom of God is Like…Part 1
Posted in God's Gifts, God's Lessons
Tagged bible-study, Jesus, parable, parable-of-the-sower, parables
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It is Your Father’s Good Pleasure to Give You The Kingdom, Part 2
In the last post, we talked about how a person who is “born-again” gets a heart change. He gets a new life, a chance to “start over.” He will still make mistakes and sin in this new life, but God has wiped his slate of sin away forever. He is totally forgiven. Sin is no longer being held against him as he is now a child of God. Now he lives under God’s grace, His mercy, and eternal forgiveness. Although he still has battles in his mind ahead of him, he begins to think positively rather than negatively. He has joy in his heart because of the new life inside him. This attitude grows as He stays in relationship with Jesus and studies the word of God which reveals how God sees him. This is truth. He has been lifted out of dark thinking and has now come into God’s light, which is reality.
Continue readingIt is Your Father’s Good Pleasure to Give You the Kingdom, Part 1
Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32
A previous post got me to thinking about the word “kingdom,” and how it is a word that is a bit abstract and foreign to those of us who live in the United States because our government is not a kingdom. What picture comes to your mind when you hear that word?
I realized that I don’t really have a good mental picture, having never actually lived in a kingdom. I have been in the kingdom of God for the past almost 40 years, having been saved since 1984 and have been learning about it and living under it ever since. I live in it by my surrender to the will of God and my relationship to Him every day. I study the scriptures and pray to ascertain what the will of God is for my life and what His purpose is for me. As a believer I am a citizen of two kingdoms. I live in a body here on the earth, but the scriptures say I am now also a citizen of heaven.
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Posted in Position of Man in the Plan of God, The Will of God
Tagged citizenship, kingdom of God
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Use Wisely the Time You Have Been Given…
I have long thought that this country, the USA, has been blessed with such an abundance of the Word of God and the many-faceted ways to read it, hear it, and receive it, such as podcasts, audio recordings and the like, as well as the many versions of bible translations, that in reality, I can find no excuse for the depravity of our land. There is none, except that men have rejected it. Or perhaps they have rejected our version of a church without power. Our country ought to be strong; the church ought to be strong. I believe the church in this country has no excuse not to be the strongest and most enlightened in the world because of our great privileges as a society that has been living in the freedom we have. We have not embraced this great salvation and Kingdom that God has provided for us. Because of the great privileges, wealth and prosperity we have been given, I fear that we have fallen prey to the love of our own comforts and the lusts of the world. We are guilty of not obeying the Creator of the universe, the great Lover of our souls.
Continue readingDoes God Lead Us Into Temptation?
Let’s talk about this. I know this idea is in the Lord’s prayer that is written in the Gospels, but does our heavenly Father who loves us actually lead us into temptation? Matthew 6:13. Follow my logic here please. The scriptures say with every temptation He makes a way of escape for us. 1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
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Posted in God's Lessons, Position of Man in the Plan of God
Tagged temptation, testing
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Americans Have no Excuse!
I have thought about this for several years….I have thought about the abundance of revelation and teaching, and the availability of the word of God in our nation. We have so much! Christians, the church has no excuse not to be strong in faith. We have so much available to us. But conversely, we have so many other options available, so much wealth, that we have made other choices. Such privilege, such abundance, such wealth and freedom we have experienced! Will we be able to pass it on to our children?
Continue readingLiving By Every Word from the Mouth of God
John 21:3-7 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”
They said to him, “We are going with you also.” They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any food?”
They answered Him, “No.”
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Posted in God's Lessons, Trusting God
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Call to Me, And I Will Show You Great and Mighty Things
Jeremiah 33:1-3 “Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the prison, saying, “Thus says the LORD who made it, the LORD who formed it to establish it (the LORD is His name): Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”
God has great things for our lives, things He wants to show us for the future. Are we listening? Are we interested in listening? There are things we cannot even imagine that He wants to do in the world, things He wants to do with us! He is the smartest Person in the universe. We need to see as He sees because He sees the whole picture and holds the plan for the future.
Continue readingOn Obedience and Suffering
Hebrews 5:8 “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience through the things which He suffered.
Philippians 2:8 “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Hebrews 2:17-18 “Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
Continue readingRule Thou in the Midst of Your Enemies!
As Jesus walked the earth, He ruled in the midst of His enemies. Exactly what does that mean?
We know He never sinned and although there is no recording of it, I would bet He was also never sick. He had miraculous escapes from death as a baby as God protected Him and His family. He demonstrated the Kingdom of God to the people of that day by healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, multiplying food, calming storms, and other supernatural acts. He showed them there was a spiritual world. These were the signs that the Kingdom of God was at hand. He experienced miraculous escapes also after His ministry began, until the time that He gave Himself into the hands of evil men in order to fulfill the plan of God to save the world from sin. He taught the disciples how to demonstrate the power of Heaven and we are commissioned to go and do likewise.
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Dogtags and Pearls...the plain and the precious 