Head of the Church

Mar 7, 2023KennethLeave a comment

Ephesians 5 New International Version

Instructions for Christian Households

²¹Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

²²Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.²³For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶to make her holy, cleansing^[b] her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰for we are members of his body.³¹“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”^[c] ³²This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

March 6th Morning Affirmations

Mar 6, 2023Kenneth

Know Your Worth; Own Your Life

1. I am grateful for the experiences that shaped me to become the person I am today.

2. I CHOOSE to fill my day with gratitude, compassion, and kindness.

3. I am WORTHY of living the life of my dreams.

4. I courageously step into the unknown. My fears do not decide my fate.

5. I CHOOSE to create a live that feeds my spirit and nourishes my soul.

6. Today, I choose faith over doubt and courage over fear.

With Love & Light,

Nova Namastè

Subscribe to ZannaKeithley to receive your free affirmation calendar:D

View original post

When We All Get to Heaven

Mar 5, 2023Mar 4, 2023KennethLeave a comment

John 14 New International Version

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God^[a]; believe also in me. ²My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴You know the way to the place where I am going.”

The Story Behind When We All Get to Heaven

Eliza Hewitt was born in 1851 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She went to school locally and graduated as Valedictorian of the Girl’s Normal School. She then began teaching in the Philadephia area. One day while overseeing her students in the playground, she, unfortunately, suffered a severe back injury and was forced to bed for months, dealing with the pain the rest of her life.

Although Eliza could have been resentful, and no one would have blamed her, she felt the presence of the Lord while confined to bed. She started studying Literature and English while recovering from her injury. Barely did she know that she was being prepared by God to write poetry and hymns, and these two subjects would prove very useful.

As Eliza recovered some of her strength in later years, she was able to get around slowly. She attended the summer Methodist Camp meeting, in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Here she met Emily D. Wilson and they formed a great friendship. They worshipped and studied together and together created this hymn, “When We All Get To Heaven.” The hymn was first published in 1898 in Pentecostal praises. Her back problems would arise at times and put Eliza down but not for long. She adored Sunday School and most of her hymns were intended for children in Sunday School.

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,
Sing His mercy and His grace;
In the mansions bright and blessed
He’ll prepare for us a place.
- Refrain:
  When we all get to heaven,
  What a day of rejoicing that will be!
  When we all see Jesus,
  We’ll sing and shout the victory!
While we walk the pilgrim pathway,
Clouds will overspread the sky;
But when trav’ling days are over,
Not a shadow, not a sigh.
Let us then be true and faithful,
Trusting, serving every day;
Just one glimpse of Him in glory
Will the toils of life repay.
Onward to the prize before us!
Soon His beauty we’ll behold;
Soon the pearly gates will open;
We shall tread the streets of gold.

Giving up Everything

Mar 3, 2023Kenneth2 Comments

Luke 14 New International Version

The Cost of Being a Disciple

²⁵Large crowds were travelling with Jesus, and turning to them he said:²⁶“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. ²⁷And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Image result for surrendering all for jesus

²⁸“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?²⁹For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, ³⁰saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

³¹“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³²If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ³³In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

³⁴“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? ³⁵It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

His Prescence

Mar 1, 2023Kenneth

In the secret of Thy presence,
Where the pure in heart may dwell,
Are the springs of sacred service
And a power that none can tell.
There my love must bring its offering,
There my heart must yield its praise,
And the Lord will come, revealing
All the secrets of His ways.

In the secret of Thy presence,
In the hiding of Thy power,
Let me love Thee, let me serve Thee,
Every consecrated hour.

More than all my lips may utter,
More than all I do or bring,
Is the depth of my devotion
To my Saviour, Lord and King.
Nothing less will keep me tender;
Nothing less will keep me true;
Nothing less will keep the fragrance
And the bloom on all I do!

Blessèd Lord, to see Thee truly,
Then to tell as I have seen –
This shall rule my life supremely;
This shall be the sacred gleam.
Sealed again is all the sealing,
Pledged again my willing heart,
First to know Thee, then to serve Thee,
Then to see Thee as Thou art.

How we all need to spend time being quiet and still in the Lord’s presence! This beautiful devotional song was written in 1920 by Albert Orsborn, the Salvation Army’s “Poet General”. He had been asked to write a song for a series of officers’ councils, but only made a start after the first session! For such a prolific hymnwriter, apparently the task would not be difficult! Orsborn is quoted as saying: “At about 5:30 (in the morning) I awoke with a very real sense of a Presence quite near me. Then slowly, but easily, these verses and the chorus came into my mind. All I had to do was to catch the inspiration and write down the words…by candlelight.” The song was used that evening but not published until 1923.

Unconditional Love

Feb 28, 2023Kenneth

Unconditional Love is really tough!

“I will love you the same whatever you do”

“I will love you the same whoever you are”

“I will love you the same No matter how I’m feeling

Lent is Anti-Everything-Society-Stands-For — BeautyBeyondBones

Feb 28, 2023Kenneth

Lent stands for everything that modern society doesn’t. And that’s okay. #faith #catholic #lent #christianity #jesus #god #bible #prayer #edrecovery #recovery
Lent is Anti-Everything-Society-Stands-For — BeautyBeyondBones

Obey God and he will provide

Feb 26, 2023Feb 25, 2023KennethLeave a comment

Deuteronomy 11 New Living Translation

The Blessings of Obedience

⁸“Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and take over the land you are about to enter. ⁹If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors and to you, their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey! ¹⁰For the land you are about to enter and take over is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you planted your seed and made irrigation ditches with your foot as in a vegetable garden. ¹¹Rather, the land you will soon take over is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain— ¹²a land that the Lord your God cares for. He watches over it through each season of the year!

¹³“If you carefully obey the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and soul, ¹⁴then he will send the rains in their proper seasons—the early and late rains—so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil. ¹⁵He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock, and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.

¹⁶“But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the Lord and serve and worship other gods. ¹⁷If you do, the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests. Then you will quickly die in that good land the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸“So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. ¹⁹Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. ²⁰Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.

²²“Be careful to obey all these commands I am giving you. Show love to the Lord your God by walking in his ways and holding tightly to him. ²³Then the Lord will drive out all the nations ahead of you, though they are much greater and stronger than you, and you will take over their land. ²⁴Wherever you set foot, that land will be yours. Your frontiers will stretch from the wilderness in the south to Lebanon in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.^[b] ²⁵No one will be able to stand against you, for the Lord your God will cause the people to fear and dread you, as he promised, wherever you go in the whole land.

²⁶“Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! ²⁷You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today. ²⁸But you will be cursed if you reject the commands of the Lord your God and turn away from him and worship gods you have not known before.

²⁹“When the Lord your God brings you into the land and helps you take possession of it, you must pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal. ³⁰(These two mountains are west of the Jordan River in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley,^[c] near the town of Gilgal, not far from the oaks of Moreh.) ³¹For you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you take that land and are living in it, ³²you must be careful to obey all the decrees and regulations I am giving you today.