Tag: Words that reflect Jesus

Understanding God’s Faithfulness Through Jeremiah 3

On By Ed AlgreenIn Accept Jesus NOW, Acknowledge God, All have sinned, Awesome God, God Cares For Us, God’s Word, SalvationLeave a comment

DATE POSTED
Thursday, January 02, 2025, and I was blessed to be at Mariposa at Hunter Road, San Marcos, TX when God inspired me to prepare this devotional. My Footnote will tell you how to find and read any and all episodes that I have shared over the years.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) and found in Jeremiah 3:19-20

THE SCRIPTURE READS
19 “I thought to myself, ‘I would love to treat you as my own children!’ I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land— the finest possession in the world.
I looked forward to your calling me ‘Father,’ and I wanted you never to turn from me. 20 But you have been unfaithful to me, you people of Israel! You have been like a faithless wife who leaves her husband. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

APPLICATION – as inspired by the Holy Spirit
Ever had a situation in your home, while growing up, where your mom and dad had a gift for you, but because of their disappointment over an incident you were a part of, they decided to hold the gift for another time? In our Scripture today, we can see where God had a very special gift for His people, but He questioned Himself on whether to move forward with ongoing blessings, as the people had disappointed Him terribly. To help you really get the impact of this, let me suggest that you substitute the underlined words above with your name, and see if you become a little more sensitive on how God must feel at times. Of course, if you are perfect, just as your Lord is, then you would want to skip this devotional and move on! Personally, I have often reflected on how, or why, would God put up with my disregard for His laws, and more so, how or why does He allow the sin in my city, state or country to go on. When I read the Old Testament, I am reminded of the times that God wiped out entire families, cities, or as in the time of Noah, the entire world population. Then, I often question why has He been so patient with us. I know, many of you who read this devotional may ponder on ways that you might improve your standing with God, and how you might please Him more. Let me assure you dear friends, that nothing has changed in God’s demands of His children. Just remember these things:
– God created us to worship Himself;
– He brought Jesus, God’s only Son, into the world so that we would have a way out of our sinful life and ready ourselves for the Kingdom of God;
– He also left a book of instruction to clarify what we could expect from God and how we should live in order to please Him.
So, let me suggest that you join me in approaching the throne of grace as we start off this New Year, and without looking for excuses, simply present ourselves to God and follow the example of David, where he simply asked God to ‘Search me, oh God, and know the intent of my heart, my thoughts and my actions. Cleanse me and make me pure and righteous in Your sight’. Enough of choosing to look, and compare ourselves, to our family, our pastor, or our friends. It is time that we awaken from the fog of that kind of dream and instead compare ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. Aim to walk in His footsteps and honor Him with our lifestyle, our words and our actions. People can easily look through our pretense, for they need Jesus, and its only when they see no wicked way in us, will they believe that Jesus is alive in us and leading us through every phase of life.

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I pray that my readers will join me in not just reading Psalm 51 again, but actually making it our goal to revisit it on a regular basis and, as we read it, sincerely apply it in our prayer life to You. Yes, You alone are righteous, but unless we aim for righteousness, we become uncommitted and cave in to the sin and evil of this world. Putting aside all that You may have in store for us as a reward for our lifestyle here on earth, we have an even deeper desire to let You guide us every day to become more like You. People need the Lord, not just the trivial attempts by us to look and sound like You. Have Your will and way in us oh Lord, until our time on earth has ended. May others see enough of You in us, that they would be influenced towards salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN!

FOOTNOTE
If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please take advantage of information provided on my page ‘To Know Jesus’. I would also suggest that you speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com and share your good news! Perhaps one of God’s servants will pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue, your walk with Jesus. If you would like to read more of my devotionals, or subscribe for a daily email containing each new devotional, please go online to NuggetsFromGodsWord.org. Friends, please allow me to encourage you to find a church home nearby your home and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider being a part of that, while also growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!

It’s Scary – An Untamed Tongue

On By Ed AlgreenIn Control your tongue, Tongue2 Comments

Thursday, 2020-02-13

Bible Reference: James 3:7-12
Translation: The Message (MSG)

Bible Text: 7–10 This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! 10–12 My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples, do they? You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?

OBSERVATION: Probably one of the most abused words in the English language is ‘Sorry’. We quickly say this after we have said what first passed through our lips, without any forethought. However, didn’t the hearer already become hurt by the abusive or hurt words that we released from our mouth? As we meditate today, let us give some thought to what may cause us to hurt someone with the words from our mouth. I believe that children of God should act and talk like their Father. Why don’t they always do this?

APPLICATION: It is unfortunate, but in spite of the warnings by James, it seems like we have paid little attention to his words. Still today, we are finding where many are being blessed by the good things that come from our lips, but yet we are also seeing friends hurt by the things that we say without regard to their feelings and/or implications to their reputation. This blows our opportunity to convince them to follow our Father, for they probably feel like we are a ‘chip off the old block’! James is telling us to do a self-check, because we can’t possibly deliver blessings using a small instrument in our body – the tongue, and also with the same instrument deliver bitter words and hatred. He likened it to a spring where we would never expect to see fresh and brackish water come forth from the same spring. Also as part of our inner check, James has challenged us to consider how friends we are witnessing to would never expect to see us righteous and holy one minute, and the very next minute see us being a bull-headed, cruel, mindless, thoughtless, abusive and hateful person, spitting forth evil and hurtful words. He likened this to a tree that bears only one type fruit. I believe the sobering part of this whole discussion and exhortation by James, is that God knows the ‘real’ us. We may try to convince people of our goodness, but God knows all about us. Friends, we must be sincere every hour, every day and with every word that comes forth from our mouth. If we truly belong to Christ, then every word and every action must exemplify Him. How are you doing friend? It’s a constant battle for me, which leads me to the cross daily for much needed help. Are you a child of the King who makes every effort to go directly to the throne for help? If so, please surrender your thoughts and your entire life to Jesus daily for His guidance and blessings. To be like Him – speak like Him and act like Him, you must be closely aligned with Him. Bible Study and prayer is two very important habits that will draw you closer to God and tune your ears and mind to His powerful touch. If you have not surrendered your life to Jesus’ control, please read through my ‘Footnote’ and follow the links for the help offered. With God’s help, we can do ALL THINGS for His glory!

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, each day I want to grow stronger in You and become more like You. To do this, I am reminded that I must give You full control of my most inmost being, because I believe that from the heart the mouth speaks. So Lord, although it’s my tongue that I particularly want You to have ultimate control over, I also know that it is of even greater importance that I give You total control over my heart, mind and soul. Clean on the inside will produce clean and wholesome words on the outside, but this can only be achieved with You in total control of my life. Please take control dear Lord. I’m yours! Please speak to hearts of all my readers that may meditate on this devotional today. May they be impacted by You, and follow through by speaking words that are indicative of their Father. I ask all this in the precious and worthy name of Jesus, my King, AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog at https://NuggetsFromGodsWord.org that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading or listening to this devotional, please go to the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Word and see all of my posts, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. I would encourage you to find a church home near by your home, and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God, and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!

Proof of Son-ship

On By Ed AlgreenIn Christian love, Love, Love God, Love others, Love your Neighbor, The love of God, Unconditional loveLeave a comment

Post Date:

 Friday, 2017-09-15
SCRIPTURE

From:

 1 John 4:7-10 (GNT)

Text:

  7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. 10 This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.
OBSERVATION:
I believe that we have always learned that God is love, and that we should use His example when explaining the word ‘love’. However in our Scripture today, John is helping us to understand that if we claim to know Jesus as Lord, then we must be identified as being a person of that same genuine love as Jesus. Easy? No, but let’s try to apply this today…..
APPLICATION:
After growing into a teenager, I remember being far from home, and someone at a gas station shouted across identifying me with my dad. I was floored, as I never knew that I looked so much like my dad! We often hear people tell couples that they look like sister and brother. I wonder if that’s as much in looks, or how they act so much alike after being together so many years? Friends, with God’s help, I want to especially share with you the unconditional love that Jesus has for us, and I want to remind you that when we identify ourselves with Him – that we are a Christian, then folk should often mistake us for Jesus, because we act so much like all they have read, heard or know about Jesus. This passage today is telling us that we can’t hate a brother or a sister and claim to be Christ-like, for that would be totally opposite to His character trait. Let me remind you that He loved the men that came to arrest Him in the garden where He went to pray, because He reached out and healed the ear of the one whose ear was severed by one of Jesus’ men. On the cross He pleaded with God to have mercy on the folk responsible for His crucifixion, as He felt they really didn’t know what they were doing. He could have called a multitude of angels to clean up the scene at the crucifixion, much like He did at His birth when He reached out to the shepherds, but He sought the Father’s will instead. These few points lead to the fact that just as Jesus loved, in spite of the circumstances, and in spite of the hatred showed to Him, then as His child, we too must seek guidance, strength and boldness to love those who are easy to love, and those who really don’t want anyone to love them. Our witness to them will be most effective when they see Jesus in our words and in our actions, otherwise we come across to them as just another hypocrite. For those of us that represent our Savior, our relationship with Him is way too important to mess up on this. Verse 8 clearly identifies those who choose not to love. I trust that no one reading this blog today will walk away acknowledging that they are not a child of the King. Friends, please know Him and know true love for one another. If you are challenged to show love for everyone, then have a personal meeting with Jesus and analyze Your relationship with Him. There may be some decisions or cleanup that He may want you to do in your life.
PRAYER:
Dear Jesus, thank You for another identifier, and reminder for those of us that claim You as Lord and Master. You portrayed love to everyone, much to the dismay of church leaders in Your day. Yet You have forgiven us of our sin, and we still look down our noses at some, assuming that we could never love them. Your Word is clear – that attitude highlights one who is not a child of the King. Lord Jesus, please help us to seek Your face, Your strength and Your love each and every day, and please help us to never assume that anyone is not worthy of our love. As Your representative, may we learn to love everyone with the same love that You showed to us when a holy and righteous Savior held out His hand and accepted a sinner like me. May You be honored in all that we say and do today, is my humble prayer that I ask in faith, AMEN!
FOOTNOTE:
There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’.  If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Word and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!