Tag: Heart

No Worries

Matthew 6:25-34 New International Version – UK

Do not worry

²⁵‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]?

²⁸‘And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Grace

2 Corinthians 12:8-9 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.Often in our life’s journey we will feel weak and discouraged for some reason. Maybe someone has made us feel that way. It is then we bring to The Lord in prayer and as long as you are willing to follow him he will give you sufficient grace.

I ask you: “How many times will you pick me up,
When I keep on letting you down?
And each time I will fall short of Your glory,
How far will forgiveness abound?”
And You answer: ” My child, I love you.
And as long as you’re seeking My face,
You’ll walk in the power of My daily sufficient grace.”

Over a year ago we had a guest preacher who came and did our service and during the service she sang this song

The water of Life

John 4 New International Version

⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])

¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Ho! Everyone that is thirsty in spirit,
Ho! Everyone that is weary and sad;
Come to the fountain, there’s fullness in Jesus,
All that you’re longing for; come and be glad!

Refrain: I will pour water on him that is thirsty,
I will pour floods upon the dry ground;
Open your hearts for the gifts I am bringing;
While you are seeking Me, I will be found.

Child of the world, are you tired of your bondage?
Weary of earth’s joys, so false, so untrue?
Thirsting for God and His fullness of blessing?
List’ to the promise, a message for you!

Refrain: I will pour water on him that is thirsty,
I will pour floods upon the dry ground;
Open your hearts for the gifts I am bringing;
While you are seeking Me, I will be found.

Child of the kingdom, be filled with the Spirit!
Nothing but “fullness” thy longing can meet;
‘Tis the enduement for life and for service;
Thine is the promise, so certain, so sweet.

Refrain: I will pour water on him that is thirsty,
I will pour floods upon the dry ground;
Open your hearts for the gifts I am bringing;
While you are seeking Me, I will be found.

Note: In the video the soloist only sings the first and last verses. Hope you enjoy it

Discouragement

Psalm 34:18-20 Good News Translation

¹⁸The Lord is near to those who are discouraged;
he saves those who have lost all hope.

¹⁹Good people suffer many troubles,
but the Lord saves them from them all;
²⁰the Lord preserves them completely;
not one of their bones is broken.

Who am I, that the lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt?
Who am I, that the bright and morning star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart?

Not because of who I am
But because of what you’ve done Image result for Discouraged

Not because of what I’ve done
But because of who you are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapour in the wind
Still you hear me when I’m calling
Lord, you catch me when I’m falling
And you’ve told me who I am
I am yours

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
And watch me rise again?
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me?

Not because of who I am
But because of what you’ve done
Not because of what I’ve done
But because of who you are

I am yours
I am yours
Whom shall I fear, whom shall I fear?
‘Cause I am yours
I am yours

Doing Good in God’s eyes

Galatians 6 New International Version

Doing Good to All

6 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. ²Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. ⁴Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, ⁵for each one should carry their own load. ⁶Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.

⁷Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. ⁹Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ¹⁰Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Isn’t God just a wonderful awesome God!!!!

Godly Wisdom

Ecclesiastes 2:26

26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

There is a story in the Bible that speaks of Solomon, a young man who, after God offered him anything his heart desired, he requested wisdom. In response to his humble wish, God said to Solomon: … The Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines wisdom as “knowledge, and the capacity to make due use of it.”

Godly Wisdom For Our Decisions

When we’re facing a decision
And we’re feeling so unsure,
We need to pray for godly guidance
And the wisdom of the Lord

We need to wait with confidence
That God will show the way
And open doors we must go through, Image result for god's wisdom
Giving peace when we pray

Show us your ways, O Lord,
And where we need to walk
Guide us to where you want us,
Help us pray as we ought

Equip us with power and strength
To tread upon new ground,
To go where we’ve not been before
Where your blessings shall abound

For we shall never know how much
You long to bless our lives
Unless we take that step of faith
And follow the steps of Christ

To be where we can grow in you
And become more mature in faith,
To live in the wisdom that you’ve given,
To be immersed in your saving grace

To know your will for our lives,
We but only need to ask
You long to show us what to do,
All we need is obedient hearts

A Saviour’s Love

Philippians 2 The Message

He Took on the Status of a Slave

2 ^1-4If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favour: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

^5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

^9-11Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honoured him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honour of God the Father.

I have many songs in The Salvation Army songbook that I like, some a little bit more than others. The one in the video has to be one of my favourites because it’s a song of testimony.

The verses in the video are out order from the songbook below plus I think there are additional verses. Hope you enjoy never the less.

Verse 1
There is a name I love to hear,
I love to sing its worth;
It sounds like music in mine ear,
The sweetest name on earth.
Chorus
O how I love the Saviour’s name!
The sweetest name on earth.
Verse 2
It tells me of a Saviour’s love,
Who gave his life for me,
That I, and all who come to him,
From sin may be set free.
Verse 3
Jesus, the name I love so well,
The name I love to hear;
No saint on earth its worth can tell,
No heart conceive how dear.
Verse 4
In Heaven with all the blood-bought throng,
From sin and sorrow free,
I’ll sing the new eternal song
Of Jesus’ love to me.

Reconciliation

2 Corinthians 5 New International Version

The Ministry of Reconciliation

¹¹Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. ¹²We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. ¹³If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. ¹⁴For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

¹⁶So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹God made him who had no sin to be sin^[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Healing Waters

Ezekiel 47 New International Version – UK (NIVUK)

The river from the temple

47 The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple towards the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. ²He then brought me out through the north gate and led me round the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side. Related image

³As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits^[a] and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. ⁴He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. ⁵He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in – a river that no one could cross. ⁶He asked me, ‘Son of man, do you see this?’

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. ⁷When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. ⁸He said to me, ‘This water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah,^[b] where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. ⁹Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. ¹⁰Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds – like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. ¹¹But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. ¹²Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.’