50Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.”51Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.”
Hey TLC Family, don't let the dark things going on in the world upset you. Keep your eyes on what God has said in the Bible. Rest in Jesus and his finished work and not in the chaos of the world. Remember we are people of light and as the world gets darker, we will shine brighter for His Kingdom.
Psalm 37:4-9
4 Be happy with the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Entrust your ways to the LORD. Trust him, and he will act [on your behalf]. 6 He will make your righteousness shine like a light, your just cause like the noonday sun. 7 Surrender yourself to the LORD, and wait patiently for him. Do not be preoccupied with [an evildoer] who succeeds in his way when he carries out his schemes. 8 Let go of anger, and leave rage behind. Do not be preoccupied. It only leads to evil. 9 Evildoers will be cut off [from their inheritance], but those who wait with hope for the LORD will inherit the land.
What is Sin according to the Bible? It's choosing not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. How do you rid yourself of that sin? By being reborn by the power of the Spirit. How does that take place? By asking Jesus to be Lord over your life.
Joh 16:8 "When the Helper comes, he will show the people of the world how wrong they are about sin, about being right with God, and about judgment.
Joh 16:9 He will prove that they are guilty of sin, because they don't believe in me.
Joh 16:10 He will show them how wrong they are about how to be right with God. The Helper will do this, because I am going to the Father. You will not see me then.
Joh 3:15 Then everyone who believes in him can have eternal life."
Joh 3:16 Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him would not be lost but have eternal life.
Joh 3:17 God sent his Son into the world. He did not send him to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him.
Joh 3:18 People who believe in God's Son are not judged guilty. But people who do not believe are already judged, because they have not believed in God's only Son.
Joh 3:3 Jesus answered, "I assure you, everyone must be born again. Anyone who is not born again cannot be in God's kingdom."
Joh 3:4 Nicodemus said, "How can a man who is already old be born again? Can he go back into his mother's womb and be born a second time?"
Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, "Believe me when I say that everyone must be born from water and the Spirit. Anyone who is not born from water and the Spirit cannot enter God's kingdom.
Rom 10:8 This is what the Scripture says: "God's teaching is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart." It is the teaching of faith that we tell people.
Rom 10:9 If you openly say, "Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised him from death, you will be saved.
Rom 10:10 Yes, we believe in Jesus deep in our hearts, and so we are made right with God. And we openly say that we believe in him, and so we are saved.
Rom 10:11 Yes, the Scriptures say, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be disappointed."
Rom 10:12 It says this because there is no difference between those who are Jews and those who are not. The same Lord is the Lord of all people. And he richly blesses everyone who looks to him for help.
Rom 10:13 Yes, "everyone who trusts in the Lord will be saved."
Ask Jesus to teach you concerning this passage
I would like to hear the revelation he gives you concerning it. Also how he wants you to live it out daily by his grace.
Teaching about Money and Possessions
19“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
22“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. 23But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!
24“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
25“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
28“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
31“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33Seek the Kingdom of Godd above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
34“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
When You Pray by Dr. Martin Jones
These things, however, pale into insignificance when you look at a man engaged in prayer. When a man is speaking to God he is at his very acme. It is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man’s true spiritual condition. There is nothing that tells the truth about us as Christian people so much as our prayer life. Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer. It is not so difficult to give alms—the natural man knows something about that, and you can have a true spirit of philanthropy in people who are not Christian at all. Some seem to be born with a generous nature and spirit, and to such almsgiving is not essentially difficult. The same applies also to the question of self-discipline—refraining from certain things and taking up particular duties and tasks. God knows it is very much easier to preach like this from a pulpit than it is to pray. Prayer is undoubtedly the ultimate test, because a man can speak to others with greater ease than he can speak to God. Ultimately, therefore, a man discovers the real condition of his spiritual life when he examines himself in private, when he is alone with God. We saw in chapter 11 that the real danger for a man who leads a congregation in a public act of prayer is that he may be addressing the congregation rather than God
Because Jesus Loves You: He has given you his eternal sinless life.
Eternal - Cognate: 166 aiṓnios (an adjective, derived from 165 /aiṓn ("an age, having a particular character and quality") – properly, "age-like" ("like-an-age"), i.e. an "age-characteristic" (the quality describing a particular age); (figuratively) the unique quality (reality) of God's life at work in the believer, i.e. as the Lord manifests His self-existent life (as it is in His sinless abode of heaven). "Eternal (166 /aiṓnios) life operates simultaneously outside of time, inside of time, and beyond time – i.e. what gives time its everlasting meaning for the believer through faith, yet is also time-independent. See 165 (aiōn).
[166 (aiṓnios) does not focus on the future per se, but rather on the quality of the age (165 /aiṓn) it relates to. Thus believers live in "eternal (166 /aiṓnios) life" right now, experiencing this quality of God's life now as a present possession. (Note the Gk present tense of having eternal life in Jn 3:36, 5:24, 6:47; cf. Ro 6:23.)]
Because Jesus Love You: You are blessed and favored by his grace.
Blessed (happy, enviably fortunate, and spiritually prosperous–possessing the happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His grace, regardless of their outward conditions) are the pure in heart, for they shall see God! [Ps. 24:3, 4.] http://bible.com/8/mat.5.8.amp
The Bible is one long story of God meeting our rebellion with His rescue, our sin with His salvation, our guilt with His grace, our badness with His goodness. The overwhelming focus of the Bible is not the work of the redeemed but the work of the Redeemer. Which means that the Bible is not first a recipe for Christian living but a revelation book of Jesus who is the answer to our un-Christian living. Tullian Tchivijdian
I want to address an issue that I deal with a lot in helping people that encounter long term pain or illness. The pattern I see many people take is to keep rebuking the pain or illness over and over with this warfare mentality. Mark 11:23 says to speak to the mountain and command it to be removed and BELIEVE in your heart that what you say will come to pass. OK. I commanded(rebuked) the pain or illness. Now what? Did you believe that what you said will come to pass? Then why keep rebuking or fighting and wear yourself out instead of praising and thanking Father God, Jesus, for the victory. One focuses on the problem. the other focuses on the answer. One is self effort. The other is "it is finished", grace , Holy Spirit effort.
Tru-Thinking: Trust in God's Decisions (the Bible)
But the Lord’s decisions are good forever.
His plans are good for generation after generation.
12 Great blessings belong to those who have the Lord as their God!
He chose them to be his own special people.
13 The Lord looked down from heaven
and saw all the people.
14 From his high throne he looked down
at all the people living on earth.
15 He created every person’s mind,
and he knows what each one is doing.
16 A king is not saved by the power of his army.
A soldier does not survive by his own great strength.
17 Horses don’t really bring victory in war.
Their strength cannot help you escape.
18 The Lord watches over his followers,
those who wait for him to show his faithful love.
19 He saves them from death.
He gives them strength when they are hungry.
20 So we will wait for the Lord.
He helps us and protects us.
21 He makes us happy.
We trust his holy name.
22 Lord, we worship you,
so show your great love for us.
Tru-Thinking: Jesus is our daily wisdom. As a believer in Jesus, if you're searching for wisdom outside of him. You've believed the same lie as Adam and Eve.
Gen 3:6
And when the woman saw (H7200) that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat
Tru-Thinking: Are world events making you afraid? Do you see ISIS dominating the world's stage? Are you afraid of what will happen to America or the country you live in? Don't fall into despair concerning these things, put your confidence in The Lord and what he has said and not what the government is doing or not doing. We have great hope in a great future in Christ Jesus.
"Lord, you are my Light and my Savior, so why should I be afraid of anyone? The Lord is where my life is safe, so I will be afraid of no one! Evil people might attack me. They might try to destroy my body. Yes, my enemies might attack me and try to destroy me, but they will stumble and fall. Even if an army surrounds me, I will not be afraid. Even if people attack me in war, I will trust in the Lord. I ask only one thing from the Lord. This is what I want most: Let me live in the Lord ’s house all my life, enjoying the Lord's beauty and spending time in his palace. He will protect me when I am in danger. He will hide me in his tent. He will take me up to his place of safety. If he will help me defeat the enemies around me, I will offer sacrifices in his tent with shouts of joy. I will sing and play songs to honor The Lord". http://bible.us/406/psa.27.1-6.erv
Seven Things to Avoid:
Troublemakers (ROMANS 16:17)
Profane and vain babblings (1 TIMOTHY 6:20)
False science (1 TIMOTHY 6:20)
Unlearned questions (2 TIMOTHY 2:23)
Foolish questions (TITUS 3:9)
GENEALOGIES (TITUS 3:9)
Arguments about the law (TITUS 3:9)
Now intellect is a wonderful thing:
- You can understand biology, but if you don't know the Giver of life, you're still uneducated.
- You can comprehend geology, but if you don't know the Rock of Ages, you don't really know anything of importance.
- You can know all about botany, but if you haven't met the Lily of the Valley, your knowledge is useless.
- You can know all the facts of history, but if you reject the central figure of history, your time has been wasted.
- The wise man who doesn't know God is ignorant.
- The strong man who doesn't know God is weak.
- The rich man who doesn't know God is poor.
Only the Lord can fulfill all our needs and answer all our questions. Jesus came to fulfill all things.
FIVE: This is the number of power and Divine grace.
FOUR: The number four represents God's creative works, especially works associated with the earth:
In the New Testament:
Jesus' ministry lasted three years, covering three Passovers [John 2:13; 6:4; 11:55-12:1].
Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months [Luke 1:56]
Jesus was missing for three days when He was 12 years old [Luke 2:46]
Jesus took Peter, James, and John up on the Mt. of Transfiguration [Matthew 17]
Jesus arose from the dead on the third day.[Genesis 1:9-13]
Saul was blinded for three days [Acts 9:9]
The theological virtues are faith, hope and charity [1 Corinthians 13:13]
The heavenly Jerusalem has three gates on each of its four sides [Revelation 21:13]
Christians saw three as symbolic of the Trinity, the triune nature of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Three is also recognized as the number of the Holy Spirit.
In Addition:
There are three divisions of time: past, present, and future
There three persons in grammar
Thought, word, and deed complete the sum of human capacity.
THREE: In sacred Scripture the number three represents that which is solid, real, substantial, and something in its completeness. This number usually indicates something of importance or significance in God's plan of salvation by identifying an important event in Salvation History. This number operates as a "sign-post" in Scripture study for the reader to "pay attention" to the significance of the next event.
In the Old Testament:
TWO: This number can mean difference, division or double portion.
In the Creation event, God separated light and darkness. [Genesis 1:3-4]
The Ten Commandments were inscribed on two tablets of stone. [Exodus 31:18; 32:15; 34:1, 4, 29]
The children of Israel were forbidden to collect manna on the Sabbath and therefore were permitted to collect a double portion of manna on Friday.[Exodus 16:5]
On the 6th day of Creation God created two—male and female—of every species in order that fertility might be a blessing to the earth. [Genesis 1:24-31]
In the New Testament, Christians also saw this number as a symbol of the second person of the Trinity, the Incarnation of God the Son in the perfection of His humanity and divinity.
ONE: In sacred Scripture "one," ehad, in Hebrew, represents unity and is the quintessential number of monotheism, the worship of one God.
This concept of one as a unity of one God is expressed in the opening lines of the first profession of faith found in Scripture, the Shema: Hear O Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is One [Deuteronomy 6:4].
One as a cardinal number symbolizes Unity. The number One is indivisible and not made up of any other number representing the unity of the One true God in which there is no division
One as an ordinal number denotes primacy, sovereignty, divine completeness or perfection.
Christians recognized the number "one" in Scripture as symbolic of the First Person of the Most Holy Trinity, God the Father.
