Posts Tagged ‘mercy’

My Christmas Prayer For You

Posted in Christian, devotional, Gospel, Holidays, inspirational, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Dear Heavenly Father,  I come before you a poor soul who has been graciously saved by grace.  Lord, I don’t know why you chose me, but I am forever grateful that you did.  I certainly didn’t deserve anything at all.
You are a holy God and you are full of mercy and grace.  Lord, I lift up to you all of those who read this prayer and ask that you open up their eyes of understanding to know that they are sinners because of their heritage in Adam and Eve.  When they sinned in the garden, sin entered into the world and has been passed down from generation to generation. 
Help the reader take a good look at themselves and be honest.  Help them see that they  are not capable of saving themselves but need a Savior.  God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to this earth in the form of man so we can identify with Him. Your precious Son took on all the sins of mankind when He went to the cross and died.  He took on mine and He took on the sins of those who read this prayer. Oh, Lord, thank you that you made a way for us to be right before a holy God.
Jesus beat death when He rose from the grave three days after he was buried.  He is ALIVE, in Heaven right now at your side.  This shows us that we too can have the promise of a new life after death. 
I pray that the reader will turn to you Lord. That they will bow their knee to you and allow you to be master over their life.  Lord, please open their spiritual eyes so that they may see their desperate need. 
Your Word tells us that this life is not the end of it all.  When we die we will either go to heaven or hell depending on who we serve down here.  Some will continue to serve themselves and will not respond to your Word.  They will spend eternity in Hell.  Your Word teaches that Hell is a real place and it is eternal torment.  Lord, please, don’t let anyone who is reading this prayer go to Hell.  I beg you Lord. Please help their unbelief right this minute.
There are others who believe they are Christians and on their way to Heaven, but have been deceived by false teaching.  Lord, if anyone is reading this prayer falls into this category, please give them a nudge in their hearts to examine themselves to see if they are truly in the faith.  It is not by good works that they will be saved, and it is not by being a nice person, joining a church, giving money or anything else man can do. 
Lord you want us!  You want our soul and you want our bodies for service.  If there is someone out there who does all the right things in their mind, but does not love you God, does not love your Word, and does not love their fellow Christian brothers and sisters, then by you own Word, that person is not saved.
They need to be born again.  Born anew, and become a new creation.  That is what you do for us.  And, it is wonderful that you actually adopt us into your family, God.  You become our Heavenly Father, and we can call you Father.  Once that happens then you take care of us.  We don’t have to worry or fear anymore.  We will have peace deep down inside knowing when we die we will go to Heaven.  There is no uncertainty about it.  We can be sure! 
If there is someone reading this that is not sure, then Lord I pray you will touch their heart today and nudge them to get right with you.  Open their eyes that they might see.  Help that person to become one of your family members Lord.  Help that person to make a fresh new committment to live the rest of their life for you and not for themself.  Help them to allow you to be Lord and Master.
Oh, this is a beautiful time of the year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  But, it is so much more.  It is a time when we can take a look at ourselves and make sure we are on the right path for eternity.  Jesus did so much more for us than we can even imagine, and Heaven awaits us with multitudes of blessings and things we can only dream of.  What a day that will be when we meet him face to face! 
Lord, please bless the readers of this prayer and have mercy on them. 
In Jesus name, thy will be done.  Amen

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The Most Important Thing!

Posted in Christian, devotional, Faith, Gospel, Holidays, inspirational, Religion, Scripture, tagged , , , , , on December 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »

 merry-christmas-bar41

Greetings!

The most important thing I can leave you with this season is that you get right with God. If you don’t you will spend eternity in Hell. It’s that serious. So, how do you get right with God?

First admit you are a sinner. We all are. The Bible even says so in, Romans 6:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Everyone ever born has sinned, and has a sin nature.

Most people think that when someone dies they automatically go to Heaven. Growing up whenever any of our relatives died the family talked about them as being in a “better place.“ But, that is not always the case. If that person didn’t get right with God first they would not be in Heaven.

Others, don’t believe there is a Heaven or Hell and figure this life is all there is. We live, we die, are buried, and that’s it. But, that is not true either. There is an afterlife. Our bodies die, but our spirits (which are our true selves) live on forever.

Another myth people believe in is if they live a decent life, go to church, contribute to charity, or do good deeds, then they will go to Heaven when they die. Good works will not get you to Heaven.

We only get one chance to get right with God and that is in the here and now. It is crucial that you understand that. Life is fragile and none of us know what tomorrow will bring.

The Bible tells us there is a Heaven for those who believe. John 14: 2 “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places; …I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

To get right with God you need to acknowledge you are a sinner, and repent, (which means turn from your sins.) Acts 3:19 “Repent then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out….” God is holy and can’t look upon sin, so He provided us a solution.

I Corinthians 15:3-4 tells us what we need to believe. “…Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”

Many times a person’s pride will stand in the way. But, please don’t let that happen to you. Admit the truth, and ask God to accept you and adopt you into His family. Make Jesus Christ Lord or your life. Let Him lead you and control you. You will not be sorry you did, and you will be welcomed Home when your time comes.

There is an excellent book written by John MacArthur called, The Gospel According to Jesus.

If you would like to know more about how to get right with God, click on this link where you can order the book.

http://www.gty.org/Products/Books/G

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Beautiful Snow

Posted in Christian, Faith, Holidays, inspirational, Religion, tagged , , , , , on December 9, 2008| 1 Comment »

Beautiful Snow 

In the early part of the Civil War, one dark Saturday morning in the dead of winter, a young woman, twenty-two years old, died at the Commercial Hospital, Cincinnati.  She had once been beautiful and the pride of respectable parents.  Highly educated and accomplished, she might have shone in the best society.  But she was stubborn and willful and would not listen to warning.  She played with fire and called it “fun”.  One day she awoke to find herself ruined by a fatal mistake which she could not erase.  She was fallen.

She spent the rest of her young life in disgrace and shame, and died poor and friendless, a broken-hearted outcast.  Among her personal effects was found in manuscript, the poem, “Beautiful Snow” which was immediately carried to Enos B. Reed, editor the the National Union.  In the columns of that paper, on the morning following the girl’s death, the poem appeared in print for the first time.  When the paper containing the poem came out on Sunday morning, the body of the victim had not yet received burial.  The attention of Thomas Buchanan Read, one of the first American poets, was soon directed to the newly published lines, and was so taken with their stirring pathos, that he immediately followed the corpse to its final resting place. 

Such are the plain facts concerning her whose “Beautiful Snow” will be long regarded as one of the brightest gems in American literature.

Beautiful Snow

Oh! the snow, the beautiful snow,
Filling the sky and earth below,
Over the housetops, over the street,
Over the heads of the people you meet.
Dancing–Flirting–Skimming along,
Beautiful snow, it can do no wrong.
Clinging to lips in frolicsome freak,
Trying to kiss a fair lady’s cheek,
Beautiful snow from heaven above,
Pure as an angel, gentle as love.

Oh! the snow, the beautiful snow,
How the flakes gather and laugh as they go,
Whirling about in maddening fun,
Cheering the heart and dispelling the gloom.
Chasing–Laughing–Hurrying by,
It lightens the face and sparkles the eye.
Rollicking dogs with a bark and a bound,
Snap at the crystals which eddy around.
The town is alive and its heart in a glow,
To welcome the coming of beautiful snow!

How wildly the crowd goes swaying along,
Hailing each other with humor and song,
How gay are the sleighs, like the stars flashing by,
Are bright for a moment, then lost to the eye.
Ringing–Swinging–Dashing they go,
Over the crest of the beautiful snow,
Snow that’s so pure when it fall from the sky,
That it makes one regret that it’s fated to lie
And be trampled and muddied by thousands of feet,
‘Til it blends with the horrible filth of the street.

Once I was pure as the snow, but I fell,
Fell like the snowflakes from heaven to hell;
Fell to be trampled as filth of the street,
Fell to be scoffed at, to be spit on and beat,
Pleading–Cursing–Dreading to die,
Selling my soul to whoever would buy,
Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread,
Hating the living and fearing the dead.
Merciful God! have I fallen so low?
And yet I was once like the beautiful snow.

Once I was fair as the beautiful snow,
With an eye like a crystal, and heart like its glow,
Once I was loved for my innocent grace,
Flattered and sought for the charms of my face.
Father–Mother–Sisters–All,
God and myself I have lost by my fall.
The vilest wretch that goes shivering by,
Will make a wide sweep lest I wander to nigh;
for all that is on or above me, I know
There is nothing so pure as the beautiful snow.

How strange it should be that this beautiful snow,
Should fall on a sinner with nowhere to go!
How strange it should be when the night comes again;
If the snow and the ice struck my desperate brain.
Fainting–Freezing–Dying alone,
Too wicked for prayer, too weak for a moan,
To be heard in the streets of the crazy town,
Gone mad in the joy of the snow coming down!
To be and to die in my terrible woe,
With a bed and a shroud of the beautiful snow.

Helpless and foul as the trampled snow,
Sinner, despair not, Christ stoopeth low,
To rescue the soul that is lost in sin,
And raise it to life and enjoyment again.
Groaning–Bleeding–Dying for thee,
The Crucified hung on the cursed tree,
His accents of mercy fall soft on thine ear.
“Is there mercy for me?  Will He heed my weak prayer?”
O God! in the stream that for sinners did flow,
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

 

 

 

 

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A Thankful Heart

Posted in Bible Study, Christian, devotional, Faith, Gospel, inspirational, Scripture, Uncategorized, Worship, tagged , , , , , , on November 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »

God's Handiwork 08

God’s Beautiful Handiwork!

God has given us all things to enjoy and my heart is thankful.  When I look around me I am very thankful for the wondrous beauty God has created.   The beauty of Fall in my part of the country can almost take your breath away.  And, yet, when we think about it, the Bible teaches us that we live in a cursed world, where even nature is cursed.  If this is what cursed looks like I often ponder, “How magnificent Heaven must be!”

Every year at Thanksgiving people stop to thank God for the things that matter most to them.  Usually we thank God for the things here on earth like our families, homes, cars, money, and all the material things we have.  We also stop and thank him for providing for us.  We thank him for the Thanksgiving turkey and all the trimmings we indulge in on that special day. 

This year my heart is thankful for those things, but even more, I’m thankful for my salvation.  I realize that if God had not in his mercy and grace chosen to adopt me into his family, I’d be on my way to spend eternity in Hell.  That is a scary thought! 

“Oh, God, how gracious you were to call me.  I am not worthy.  I am only a fallen, wicked, imperfect, sinner, whom you loved enough to include in your plan of salvation.  You even sent your only Son to take on my sins and die on the cross and endure the wrath of sin I deserved while He paid the penalty for me.”  That is truly amazing!

I ask.  “Why me Lord?”  “Why me?  I’m not worthy to be part of your family.”  I’ve come to realize that it wasn’t up to me.  I didn’t choose God, He chose me. 

Ephesians 1-4 says, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…”

That boggles my mind! To realize that our most Precious God chose me way back in the past before He even created the world. He knew me and chose me to be one of His own.  Isn’t that a tremendous thought?

Again I say, “Why me God?”  God is Sovereign and Righteous.  He can do whatever He wants to.  He could have just as easily passed me by.  And, if He did that would not diminish Him one iota.  He would still be God in all of His fullness.  He didn’t have to chose me, but He wanted to.

My heart is thankful for God’s wonderful creation all around us; it is thankful for my undeserved salvation; and it is thankful for the future God has in store for me.

This is just the beginning, and it is going to get better and better as we spend eternity with our Lord and Savior. 

We will have troubles here on earth as we attempt to live out our daily lives.  But we must realize that those problems are for a purpose.  God is Sovereign and He is in control.  Nothing comes our way without Him allowing it.  Look at Romans 8:28.

Rom 8:28-29 NASB  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 

I realize that there is a purpose for everything.  Even when I’ve suffered many health problems throughout my life, there was a purpose in it.  Praise God for that! 

He goes on to say in Romans 8:29  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

I realize God’s purpose in my sufferings in this life is to make me more like Christ.  That is the purpose for you too if you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  He wants to shape us and mold us so that we become more and more like Christ.  We will not get there completely until we reach Heaven.

1Jn 3:2 NASB  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

We will be like Him.  What a thought!  We will be made complete in Jesus in the future.  Isn’t that another amazing thought, and something to look forward too.  My eyes are turned to the future; not on the past.  Listen to this:

2Co 5:21 NASB  He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

We are not just declared righteous when we become saved, but we have the hope that when we enter into Heaven we will become the righteousness of God in Christ.  We will become as holy, just, and righteous as God Himself.  That blows my mind away.  How can it be?  Only through God’s wondrous grace and mercy!

Below is a picture of the Second coming of Jesus Christ.  He comes out of Heaven as King of Kings and Lord of Lords to set up his Kingdom.  He is coming in judgement on mankind.  We will be following Him.  We will be riding white horses as He is, and we will be clothed in fine linen.  We are part of the armies of Heaven which is shown to us here. 

Rev 19:11-14 NASB  And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.  12  His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.  13  He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.  14  And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.

Now my heart is just about busting open with thankfulness!  We have a wonderful, exciting, beyond our imagination or comprehension,  future with our Lord Jesus.  We can’t even fathom  the things to come.  Believe me the future won’t be boring. 

Oh, Lord, thank you for saving my soul!

Thank You Lord for saving my soul,
Thank You Lord for making me whole.
Thank You Lord for giving to me,
Thy greatest salvation, so rich and so free.

thankful

 

 

 

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