ronscarpa

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Good article Yota (+1) Thank you...!

Thanks Yota...!

The Likeness of Love Our WORD for Sunday, 1 March 2015 [quote} God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him." – (Genesis 1:26-27), emphasis added [/Quote] Have you ever thought about how profoundly God loves you? You could spend a long time considering it and never plumb the depths of how intensely He cares for you. But one thing is sure — pondering His love will transform your life. Just think about the fact that the Father made you in His own image. This was a purposeful choice – so important it’s repeated four times in the biblical account. He created you with unimaginable potential and unquestionable worth – with the ability to experience Him in a deep, intimate relationship. In fact, He wants to pour His life into you and work through you in astounding, eternal ways. His desire is that when people see you, they are reminded of Him (Matthew 5:16). So no matter how you feel about yourself, embrace the truth: God loves you, longs to shower His goodness upon you, and calls you His own (Isaiah 43:1). Lord, thank You for loving me. Help me know You better and understand what it means to reflect Your likeness, amen. In His presence…realize He formed you with profound love. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we're told: "Ifa man is in Christ he becomes a new creation altogether—the past is finished and gone, everything has become fresh and new. All this is God’s doing..." (Phillips). And again in Ephesians 2:10 it says: "For we are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for a life of good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." (NASB) - Think about it...! RON

Finally and Totally JustifiedOur WORD for Saturday, 2/28/2015 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ( Romans 8:33) Paul could have said here, “Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?” and then answered, “No one! We are justified.” That’s true. But that is not what he said. His answer instead is, “God is the one who justifies.” The emphasis is not on the act but on the Actor. Why? Because in the world of courts and laws where this language comes from, the acquittal of our judge might be overturned by a higher one. So what if a local judge acquits you when you are guilty, if a governor has the right to bring a charge against you? So what if a governor acquits you when you are guilty, if the emperor can bring a charge against you? So here’s the point: above God, there are no higher courts. If God is the one who acquits you – declares you righteous in his sight – no one can appeal, no one can call for a mistrial, no one can look for other counts against you. God’s sentence is final and total. So hear this, all who will believe on Jesus, and become united to Christ, and show yourself among the elect: God is the one who justifies you. Not a human judge. Not a great prophet. Not an archangel from heaven. But God, the Creator of the world and Owner of all things and Ruler of the universe and every molecule and person in it, God is the one who justifies you. The point: unshakable security in the face of tremendous suffering. If God is for us, no one can successfully be against us. If God gave his Son for us, he will give us everything that is good for us. If God is the one who justifies us, no charge against us can stand.

Thanks Moose...Blessings my friend...! (+1)

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Thanks for posting DiveMaster...! (+1) Much appreciated...!

Excrellent Post DennisCanada...(+1) Thank you...!

Thanks Moose..!

Radical Effects of the Resurrection Our WORD for Friday, 2/27/2015 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. ( 1 Corinthians 15:19) Paul concludes from his hourly danger and his daily dying and his fighting with beasts that the life he has chosen in following Jesus is foolish and pitiable if he will not be raised from the dead. If death were the end of the matter, he says, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” This doesn’t mean: Let’s all become gluttons and drunkards. They are pitiable too — with or without the resurrection. He means: If there is no resurrection, what makes sense is middle-class moderation to maximize earthly pleasures. But that is not what Paul chooses. He chooses suffering, because he chooses obedience. When Ananias came to him at his conversion with the words from the Lord Jesus, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16), Paul accepted this as part of his calling. How could Paul do it? What was the source of this radical obedience? The answer is given in 1 Corinthians 15:20: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” In other words, Christ was raised, and I will be raised with him. Therefore, nothing suffered for Jesus is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58). The hope of the resurrection radically changed the way Paul lived. It freed him from materialism and consumerism. It gave him the power to go without things that many people feel they must have in this life. For example, though he had the right to marry (1 Corinthians 9:5), he renounced that pleasure because he was called to bear so much suffering. This is the way Jesus said the hope of the resurrection is supposed to change our behavior. For example, he told us to invite to our homes people who cannot pay us back in this life. How are we to be motivated to do this? “You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14). This is a radical call for us to look hard at out present lives to see if they are shaped by the hope of the resurrection. Do we make decisions on the basis of gain in this world or gain in the next? Do we take risks for love’s sake that can only be explained as wise if there is a resurrection? May God help us to rededicate ourselves for a lifetime to letting the resurrection have its radical effects in us and through us...!

When God Becomes 100% for Us Our WORD for Thursday, 2/26/2015 All of God’s wrath, all of the condemnation we deserve, was poured out on Jesus. All of God’s demands for perfect righteousness were fulfilled by Christ. The moment we see (by grace!) this Treasure and receive him in this way his death counts as our death and his condemnation as our condemnation and his righteousness as our righteousness, and God becomes 100% irrevocably for us forever in that instant. The question this leaves unanswered is, “Doesn’t the Bible teach that in eternity God set his favor on us in election?” In other words, thoughtful people ask, “Did God only become 100% for us in the moment of faith and union with Christ and justification? Did he not become 100% for us in the act of election before the foundation of the world?” Paul says in Ephesians 1:4–5, “[God] chose us in [Jesus] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.” Is God then not 100% for the elect from eternity? The answer hangs on the meaning of “100%.” With the term “100%” I am trying to preserve a biblical truth found in several passages of Scripture. For example, in Ephesians 2:3, Paul says that Christians were “children of wrath” before they were made alive in Christ Jesus: “We all once lived [among the sons of disobedience] in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Paul is saying that, before regeneration, God’s wrath was on us. The elect were under wrath. This changed when God made us alive in Christ Jesus and awakened us to see the truth and beauty of Christ so that we received him as the one who died for us and as the one whose righteousness is counted as ours because of our union with Jesus. Before this happened to us, we were under God’s wrath. Then, because of faith in Christ and union with him, all God’s wrath was removed and he then became, in that sense, 100% for us, which was his plan.. Therefore, exult in the truth that God will keep you. He will get you to the end because in Christ he is 100% for you. And therefore, getting to the end does not make God to be 100% for you. It is the effect of the fact that he is already 100% for you. By John Piper

I filed also....using several different email addresses...! Thanks DiveMaster...(+1) and 5 Stars...

EXCELLENT VIDEO....every American & every free man worldwide should see this video...pure history...it reveals the truth od Islam & muslim theology...! (+1) and Five (5) Stars....Thank you Machine Gun..!

Oh, that's bad...LOL...!

...LOL...!

Thanks YOTA...(+1) Good stuff...!

Thanks for all the articles YOTA...Much appreciated (+1) and Five (5) Stars..!

Thanks Moose...another good one...I had a belly laugh out of that one...!

EagleEye, Thanks for sharing....give me a call sometime and we can chat...it should be on my profile. Hope 2 hear from U soon. 702 is AC, then 883, then 6605...just in case. I appreciate everyone's comments (+1 each).

Gotta love it....that's nature...LOL..! Thanks 4 the post Mark...(+1)

Good one Saint...Thanks for posting (+1)...I'm still chuckling...!

Thanks Moose....a few smiles & a few chuckles...(+1) Be Blessed brother...!

You Are Greatly Loved Our WORD for Wednesday, 2/25/2015 Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved. ( Ephesians 2:3–5) Would you not love to hear the angel Gabriel say to you, “You are greatly loved”? Three times this happened to Daniel. “At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved” (Daniel 9:23) “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you” (Daniel 10:11) “And he said, ‘O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage” (Daniel 10:19). Take heart. If you have faith in Jesus, God himself says to you, “You are greatly loved.” We were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ . . . For by grace you have been saved through faith. (Ephesians 2:3–5, 8). This is better than an angel’s voice. If you are “alive,” you are greatly loved.