Monday Praises

- taken from Psalm 86 (nlt)

I am devoted to You.
I serve You and trust You.
You are my God.
Give me happiness, O Lord, for I give myself to You.
O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive,
You alone are God.
With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God.
You, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.

Where are you afraid to die today?

John 3:30

He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

John 12:24-25

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.

Amos 9:9

“For I will give the command and will shake Israel along with the other nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, yet not one true kernel will be lost.

Revelations 12:11

And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony.
And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.

Thought for the day:

In what area of your life are you afraid to die today?

All who are thirsty..

Luke 23:31
For if these things are done when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?[a]”
--Footnotes:
[a]Or If these things are done to Me, the living tree, what will happen to you, the drytree?

Ezekiel 37:4,5,9,11,14
4 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord!
5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again!
9 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”
11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’
14 I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken!’”

Psalm 63:1,5
1 O God, you are my God;I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.
5 You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy.

Psalm 68:9
You sent abundant rain, O God, to refresh the weary land.

Psalm 107:9,33-38
9 For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
33 He changes rivers into deserts, and springs of water into dry, thirsty land.
34 He turns the fruitful land into salty wastelands, because of the wickedness of those who live there.
35 But he also turns deserts into pools of water, the dry land into springs of water.
36 He brings the hungry to settle there and to build their cities.
37 They sow their fields, plant their vineyards, and harvest their bumper crops.
38 How he blesses them! They raise large families there, and their herds of livestock increase.

Isaiah 32:15
until at last the Spirit is poured out on us from heaven.
Then the wilderness will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops.

Isaiah 41:17-20
“When the poor and needy search for water and there is none, and their tongues are parched from thirst,
then I, the Lord, will answer them.
I, the God of Israel, will never abandon them.
I will open up rivers for them on the high plateaus.
I will give them fountains of water in the valleys.
I will fill the desert with pools of water.
Rivers fed by springs will flow across the parched ground.
I will plant trees in the barren desert— cedar, acacia, myrtle, olive, cypress, fir, and pine.
I am doing this so all who see this miracle will understand what it means—
that it is the Lord who has done this, the Holy One of Israel who created it.

Isaiah 44:1-4
“But now, listen to me, Jacob my servant, Israel my chosen one.
The Lord who made you and helps you says:
Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, O dear Israel, my chosen one.
For I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields.
And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children.
They will thrive like watered grass, like willows on a riverbank.

John 7:37-39
On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds,
“Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink!
For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”
(When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)

Christ and the Church

**All scripture and notes taken from the New Living Translation Study Bible

Among the early Christians, church meetings were not led by professional pastors or priests. Instead everyone shared with the others what God has given them for strengthening the church:

1 Corinthians 14:26
Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s summarize. When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you.

Christ is the head of the Church:

- our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep (Hebrews 13:20)

The church is the community of those who recognise the lordship of Christ and submit to Him:

Excepts from Ephesians 5:21-27
-as Christ is the head of the church. 
-He is the Savior of his body, the church. 
-As the church submits to Christ...
-just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 

-Christ and the church are one. (Ephesians 5:32)

-Christ is also the head of the church,which is his body. (Colossians 1:18)

To end off:

For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them. (Matthew 18:20)

The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world

“The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” 

- John 1:29

Have you ever really looked at a little lamb? Cute critters. Soft. Cuddly. Harmless. Innocent. Can you imagine driving knife into that small little body? No? I can’t either!

But they drove nails through the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. An innocent. For you! For me! For us all.

"Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners."
Romans 5:7-8

Doesn’t seem fair. Not to me. We struggle with sin and Jesus has to die.

"But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."
Galations 3:13

Remember in the movie the Chronicles of Narnia how unfair it seemed that Aslan died for what one of the children had done? But he chose to do it out of his own free will. For he knew he would take up his life again and destroy the power of evil.

"No one can take my life from Me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded."
John 10:18

Do we fully appreciate the love of Christ? Do we fully appreciate what was done for us on the cross? Do we love the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?