Category: Religious Messages

“Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven… I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have given me life.” Psalm 119: 89, 93 NKJV

People’s words can have a profound effect on your life.  They can build you up or wound you deeply.  In fact, you may be thinking of what someone said even now — considering their remarks and wondering what you did to deserve them.

However, let this truth sink deep into your heart.  No matter what anyone says — whether good or bad — it’s never as important or accurate as what God’s Word says about you.  Only Scripture testifies to God’s character throughout history and how He — the One True Judge of the living and the dead — sees you.

Through the pages of God’s Word, you know the Father better, understand your salvation, strengthen your faith, find your identity as His child and heir, discover the principles for a successful life, and learn how to lead others to the Savior.

This is why there’s nothing more important than meditating on Scripture.  Therefore, give more importance to His Word than anyone else’s.  And allow the Lord to breathe life into you through it.

Lord, Your Word is life.  Plant it deep within my heart so Your life can flourish in me, amen.

Jesus Always – Embracing Joy In His Presence, Sarah Young, p. 86.

“Since ancient times, spiritual masters of all traditions have pointed to the Now as the key to the spiritual dimension.  Despite this, it seems to have remained a secret.  It is certainly not taught in churches and temples.

If you go to a church, you may hear readings from the Gospels such as ‘Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself,’ or ‘Nobody who puts his hands to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.’

Or you might hear the passage about the beautiful flowers that are not anxious about tomorrow but live with ease in the timeless Now and are provided for abundantly by God.

The depth and radical nature of these teachings are not recognized.  No one seems to realize that they are meant to be lived and so bring about a profound inner transformation.”

The Power Of Now – A Guide To Spiritual Enlightenment, Eckhart Tolle, p. 51-52.

 

“True servants need to be gentle and humble. Jesus entered the Upper Room to find it full of proud hearts and dirty feet. Not one of the disciples was willing to volunteer for the lowest task of washing dirty feet. Instead, they all argued over who was the greatest among them. Jesus quietly demonstrated to them His gentleness and humility by washing their feet.

All believers are called to walk humbly in the Spirit of God. ‘But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.’ (Gal. 5:16) ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law.’ (Gal. 5:22-23)

Being humble is not a sign of weakness: Jesus illustrates by example how an obedient servant walks in the Spirit of our Father. (Selflessness) Serving others is not an easy task. We should realize that we are

humans, filled with weakness, but we must not lock ourselves in a bubble so we will be perfectly safe.

We need to know how to trust in God, how to obey Him, and how to use a proper perspective that will guard us against stumbling. ‘Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the Light of this world.’ [Jesus] (John 11:9).”

TrailNotes, gracefellowship01@gmail.com, “What does God require of you?” Jerry Mathias.

(The Christian life is a journey. TrailNotes speaks to forward movement, paying attention to the “landscape” we are passing through in this trail-laced wooded hillside and valley, not to mention the world beyond. TrailNotes is an unfolding, ongoing journal of the people who share the trail with us and the things we’re learning and doing.)

 

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:  1 – 13