Spiritual Thoughts

[red]

You may share some Bible verse and share with us your thoughts. Sir Ed, or should I call you Pastor Ed he he he this would be your specialty.

[Edwin]

Yes, Red, I think this is a great idea to add scriptures that support what is being said. There is a scripture that I really like that I have seen quoted in some of the profiles given here:

Jeremiah 29:11; "For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."

This is a prophecy that was given for the children of Israel in captivity, telling them that after their captivity they would be returned to the land of Israel. God was saying that they would call to Him, and He would listen to them. After that they would return and not worship idols any more. God promised them, and He promises us that we will find Him when we search for Him with all our hearts.

The thought here is that God has a plan for us, as well as the children of Israel. That plan is to do us good and to prosper us. The thoughts are not of evil, but of peace, and God's plan is to give us an expected end, and to do us good.

[red]

Thank you Sir Ed, Hope you can post more. Love to read them esp when i am busy hardly have time to meditate. opps.

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Matthew 6:18 Your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

I love that verse.

[Edwin]

Thank you, Red, and that is a beautiful verse. I have seen a quite a few filipinas objecting to boastfulness, and that is good. We are only to boast in the Lord and what He has done, and what He can do. Our western society encourages boasting, but it is not good. Pride is what underlines sin. Satan's boastfulness is where sin began. He said, "I will lift up my throne above the throne of God, and that did not work. He took 1/3 of the angels with him in his rebellion. We see the sin of the Pharisees where they want everyone to know what they put in the offering, and they wanted everyone to hear their wonderful prayers, but God didn't listen to their prayers because they had boastful hearts. When we pray we are not to advertise that we are praying. When we give we are to give to only be seen of God, and yes He will reward us. The Pharisee prayed with himself, God was not listening, about how good he was, but the publican would not even look up, but smote his breast and said, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Jesus said that he went to his house justified, but not the Pharisee.

[jadegil6]

Isaiah 53: (King James New Version)

1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, [There is] no beauty that we should desire Him.

3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, [our] faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But He [was] wounded for our transgressions, [He was] bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace [was] upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.

9 And they made His grave with the wicked -- But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor [was any] deceit in His mouth.

10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put [Him] to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see [His] seed, He shall prolong [His] days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.

11 He shall see the labor of His soul, [and] be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.

About 20 years ago, when my pastor was working at another church as a Youth Minister, he read this scripture to a group of youth in his church. Then he asked them "who" they thought this scripture was about. They all said that it was about Jesus.

This scripture was written 650 years before Jesus was born.

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I am always interested in prophecies in the Bible. All is being planned by God. Amazing.

[Edwin]

Yes, Red, what you and Sir Michael talked about is one of the great proofs that God does exist, that He has a plan, that He has inspired people to write the Bible, and that not only what He said would happen did happen, but what He says in His word, the Bible is going to happen in the future, just as surely as what He had people write in the past has happened. There is also a spirit of Truth, which I think is the Holy Spirit, which convinces people of the truth of the Bible. When my Dad was young he was not a believer. His mother was a Christian, but he lived in a divided family, and he didn't know much about the things of God. He was involved in the business of making and selling alcohol illegally. My uncle told about him one day abandoning a car that he had full of alcohol due to be delivered. He saw the Federal people coming towards him on the sidewalk, while he was walking towards that car. He turned around, walked away, and never saw that car again. He was working for his uncle who also produced and sold alcohol illegally, but his uncle's equipment ended up in the bottom of the river, and he ended up in prison for a few years. Well, my Dad was also drinking the stuff as well as producing and selling it, but he started reading the Bible, and God convinced him that there was a God, that He had written the Bible, and that He loved my Dad and died for him. My Dad became a Christian at that time, and lived the rest of his life to honor God. Dad was convinced that if anyone would read the Bible with a sincere heart that God would convince them of His reality. God's Spirit does speak to people through His word, the Bible. My Dad could have had a life ruined by sin, but God turned his life around, and he never went back to his old ways. I will see him in heaven again one day.

[Edwin]

Psalm 20:5; "We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the Lord fulfil all thy petitions. 6; Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. 7; Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. 8; They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright. 9; Save, Lord: let the king hear us when we call."

Some people including myself worry a lot about the troubles they have. Many of us do have real, not imagined troubles. Those troubles often come in the form of financial difficulties. Often times those troubles come in family troubles where people hate each other and do all kinds of harm to one another. Anyway God is bigger than any of our troubles.

"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God."

[red]

Oh yes, we tend to worry about troubles esp when it is about the health of a member of family. It is stressful. But when I am reminded that there is an ultimate doctor who is always watching from above it makes me feel somehow at ease. Just call on Him. 1 Peter 5:7.