"SHORT, SWEET, SIMPLE AND TO THE POINT"

Good Evening to All!

This post was actually meant for last night, but my eyes got so tired I had to postpone it til today.

I was reminiscing and looking through my "old Bible", the Bible that I was using when I "woke up" and realized I needed to get serious about my relationship with God. I loved looking through my notes. Did you know that until the second century, people were only baptized "in the name of the Jesus" ? In the second century the Catholic Church changed the baptism "formula" to "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost". This is according to several encyclopedias and the dictionary.

I knew that Father, Son and Holy Ghost was only mentioned in Matthew 28:19 as far as baptism, but I didn't know the "rest of the story".

OK, the above has nothing to do with my scriptures below, I just thought that would be an interesting thought to "chew on". If you would like the full meal, I can give you some links to check out or I can go into further detail. I hope you don't mind, I am just one of those people who get a certain thought "stuck in my brain" and won't let it go until I have searched it out thoroughly. I love researching things like that.

May I say that I would really love to give a shout out to 3 special blogs which constantly give me inspiration. The first is Christian with a View by Steve Hawley, According to the Book, by Stan Butler, and Settled in Heaven by Rob Barkman. While the first two seem closer to my "doctrinal faith", I enjoy Rob's study of scripture and his Bible studies. I love the way he always comes to my blog and gives me comments of inspiration. I learn a lot from his studies because they give me the unction to do research and get into the Word and study more. Truly God's love seems to pour out from him. I give God thanks for you three gentlemen for you have blessed me with your blogs immeasurably.

Now, on with my Post

"This is what the LORD says--
Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty:

I am the first and I am the last;
apart from me there is no God.
Who then is like ? Let him proclaim it.
Let him declare and lay out before me
what has happened since I established by ancient people,
and what is yet to come--
yes, let him foretell what will come.
Do not tremble, do not be afraid.
Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago?
You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides Me?
No, there is no other Rock; I know not one."
(Isaiah 44:6-8 NIV)

This verse above tells me that He is the God I can depend on. He is the only assurance I need. When others let me down, I can go to Him and He will carry me.
He alone is the God who provides, heals, comforts and is there for me no matter what.

We are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:9-11 NIV)

This verse reminds me that I am but a small cog in God's ministry. Even though Paul started the church in Corinth, (planted) and Apollos came behind him and continued his ministry (watered) it was God who touched the hearts of people and drew them to Him. He made the increase.

It is the same with us today. It takes all of us to plant and water God's Word about His kingdom, but GOD will bring about the results and make the increase.

I will not be posting tomorrow or Sunday, but will be back on track on the 26th.






Good Night to All and May God Bless!

Praying the Scriptures

Good Evening to All!

Forever, O Lord, Your Word is settled in heaven. (Psalm 119:89)

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The above verse is telling us that God's Word stands firm in heaven. In other words, God said it, I believe it. It's settled. Whatever He says in His Word is complete truth. Therefore it is settled in heaven.

I'm sure you know and I have told you in the past that one way God speaks to us is through His Word. He loves hearing His Word back spoken back to Him. When we pray this way, it is said we are "praying the Word", or "praying the Scriptures." Some people say it is the way for someone to learn how to pray. All it takes is reading some scriptures out of Bible pertaining to what you want to pray about and praying them in a way that makes them personal or for someone else. The main thing is to feel this need in your heart, along with the scripture, and start the prayer off such as "God, Your Word says, or "it is written" and then insert whatever scripture fits your prayer request.

For example, if you were praying a prayer for healing, you could say, Father, according to your Word, "By Your stripes "she/he" is healed, In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen. In this particular prayer you paraphrased Isaiah 53:5 KJV which says "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 1 Peter 2:24 KJV says: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Another example is "Lord in Your Word, You say that as long as we abide in You and Your words abide in us, whatever we ask in Your name, you will do it. This is according to John 15:4 KJV. In Matthew 7:7 KJV, this should be one that needs no introduction. "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. These last two scriptures can be used for any purpose, be it healing, financial, special situations, it doesn't matter. God just wants you to ask for His help, and He likes it even more if you quote His Word back to Him because that shows that you care enough about Him to read His Word.

Do you know that God hears all of your prayers? I've heard tell, that all of our prayers are floating around up in heaven. Our prayers never die. You know something even better? God says His Word will never come back void. In other words, when you speak His word, action will be taken. We may not see it for a time, but something will happen. His word is never spoken in vain. Whenever you speak His Word, a seed WILL be planted. Whether it's today, or a year from now, someone will "understand and get something from it".

Again, I would like to reiterate that your prayers don't have to be fancy, or full of eloquence. Just make sure your heart is right and they come from your heart. Praying the scriptures is what you might say a bonus. It's a bonus for you because you study the Bible to find the right scriptures for your request, and a bonus for God, because He loves hearing His Word prayed back to Him.

Another thing. When you are praying, if you have a Bible handy, I would suggest looking up scriptures having to do with your prayer request and "reading them in prayer form as suggested above, making them personal. If you don't have a Bible handy, then just remembering the basic words, such as spoken above, i.e. according to Your Word, by Your stripes he/she is healed", will suffice. it isn't exactly praying the scriptures, but it shows God that you have been reading the Word and know that it says that in there.

Good night to all and May God Bless!