Worrying is Useless

Worrying is Useless

Luke 12:22-34 NIV

22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

27 "Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
NIV

Why Do We Weep?

Why Do We Weep?

Why do we weep and worry so
When things go wrong and troubles grow?
Have we no faith to just believe
When sorrows cause our hearts to grieve?
We may not understand it all
When disappointments come to call,
But God has promised to be there
If we but call His name in prayer.
We know that He is on our side
For in our hearts He shall abide
Until the rivers cease to flow
And autumn winds refuse to blow
For God is great; His word is true,
And there is nothing He can't do...
So rest assured that God is near
And wipe away that bitter tear.

Clay Harrison / T.S.

Forgive Me, Lord

Forgive Me, Lord

Forgive me, Lord, for all my wrongs,
I need Your help, to keep me strong.
I need Your love from day to day,
To show me how, to find my way.

The night is dark, and I am sad,
I pray to Thee, to make me glad.
In heaven above, I hope to be
To worship You, for eternity.

For all my sins, I feel contrite,
A deep desire, to set things right.
In humble prayer, I ask Your grace,
My only dream, in heaven, a place.

And thru my life stay by my side,
In all my needs, be Thou my guide
To help me find, in faith above,
That peace of mind, which comes with love.

Francis X. Wadland

Life is One Long Test

Life is One Long Test

Matt 10:38 NIV
38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

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Matt 16:24 NIV
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Luke 9:23 NIV
23 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

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Rom 8:18 NIV
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

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James 1:12 NIV
12 Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

Misplaced Trust

Misplaced Trust

John 21:15-17 NIV
15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
16 Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
17 The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my sheep."

Act 20:28-30 NIV
28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.

1 Cor 6:18 NIV
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

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When I was a child, a priest was someone
you looked up to and respected.
I really felt inadequate, thinking he knew my sins.
He represented Jesus in Confession and Communion.
No one usually questioned his authority
even on non-religious matters.
Still, at such an impressionable age,
I find it hard to believe that I would've
done an unmentionable act at a priest's bidding.
Then, I respected my body above all else
and would never have acquiesced to a lewd act.
These thousands of paedophile victims differ
in their unfortunate stories but I ask...
why didn't they tell their parents?
I can't believe that their respect for the Church
overrode the welfare of their children.
Now, in 2010, most of the parents are dead
and the children are well into maturity.
The victims' cry for justice has been long in coming.
High ranking Church officials will have to fess up their part
in the cover-up of these despicable crimes.
In the end, it's a Higher Authority they'll have to answer to.

Truth Seeker

The God of All Comfort

The God of All Comfort

2 Cor 1:3-5 NIV
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

God Deserves Honor and Worship

God Deserves Honor and Worship

Hag 1:2-11 NIV
2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: "These people say, 'The time has not yet come for the Lord's house to be built.'"
3 Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: 4 "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"
5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."
7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the Lord. 9 "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the Lord Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands."

The Great Earthquake of Revelation

The Great Earthquake of Revelation

Revelation 6:12-17 NIV
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"

It's an Obscenity

It's an Obscenity
by Truth Seeker

For a long time, I've prayed to St. Lucy
that God grant our family
healthy eyes and very good eyesight
so that we can see what He wants us to see
and not see what He doesn't want us to see

Now, with all the images of the Haiti quake,
I find myself not wanting to open my eyes.
It's an obscenity to look, Lord,
but He tells me " OPEN AND LOOK !"

After all, I can only donate so much;
I can only pray so much but,
I can certainly LOOK and FEEL.
With this I can show that I AM ALIVE
and that I CARE.

If I change channels to a football game,
game show or other entertainment program
I feel that I am turning my back on this tragedy.

What an unfortunate lot we humans must draw sometimes - - -
being born in Haiti against being born in the USA.
And yet, I must believe,
appearances are not always as they seem.
The Haitian people have suffered through hell
for over 200 years and now this.
As Galatians 6:7 says: "A man reaps what he sows."
I must say, many Haitians won't be reaping any good
in this world but most certainly in the next.

God bless Haiti and its people. Amen.

We Have Nothing

Job 1:21 NIV
21 and said:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised."

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1 Timothy 6:7-8 NIV
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

Judge Not

Matthew 7:1-5 NIV
1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

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John 8:3-11 NIV
3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11 "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

Repent or Perish

Luke 13:1-5 NIV
1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

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http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/14/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6096806.shtml
On his Christian Broadcasting Network show yesterday, Rev. Pat Robertson said that the nation of Haiti has been devastated by a large earthquake because its people "made a pact with the devil."

"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it," Robertson said. "They were under the heel of the French ... and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, 'We will serve you if you'll get us free from the French.'"

"True story," he continued. "And the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another."

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http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1953379_1953494_1953674,00.html
So what was Robertson referring to? The theory that Haiti is a nation built on a pact with the devil has circulated on a number of websites, each tracing back to an apocryphal tale of Haitian voodoo priests sacrificing a pig and drinking its blood in 1791 in order to secure Satan's aid in expelling the French occupation. In return, the priests are said to have promised Haiti to Satan for the next 200 years. The French were soon beat back, and in 1804, Haiti became an independent nation. But even if you believe the story (something many historians doubt), Satan's lease on the tiny island nation should have expired in 1991.

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http://www.gotquestions.org/generational-curses.html
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Question: "What does the Bible say about breaking generational curses?"

Answer: The Bible mentions “generational curses” in several places (Exodus 20:5; 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 5:9). It sounds unfair for God to punish children for the sins of their fathers. However, this is looking at it from an earthly perspective. God knows that the effects of sin are passed down from one generation to the next. When a father has a sinful lifestyle, his children are likely to have the same sinful lifestyle as well. That is why it is not unjust for God to punish sin to the third or fourth generation – because they are committing the same sins their ancestors did. But they are being punished for their own sins, not the sins of their ancestors. The Bible specifically tells us that God does not hold children accountable for the sins of their parents (Deuteronomy 24:16).

There is a trend in the church today to try and blame every sin and problem on some sort of generational curse. This is not biblical. The cure for generational curses is salvation through Jesus Christ. When we become Christians, we are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). How can a child of God still be under God’s curse (Romans 8:1)? The cure, then, for a “generational curse” is faith in Christ and a life consecrated to Him (Romans 12:1-2).

Signs of the End of the Age

Matthew 24:3-8 NIV
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"
4 Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ, and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Exalting Oneself

Luke 18:10-14 NIV
10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' 13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' 14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Psalm 51 NIV

Prayer of Repentance For Bad Choices
Psalm 51 NIV
(After David had committed adultery with Bathsheba)








1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.

5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts ;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.

14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.

16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight you;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.