SHARING BIBLE VERSES

[Joe Sperling]

Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion;
to you our vows will be fulfilled.
O you who hear prayer,
to you all men will come.
When we were overwhelmed by sins,
you forgave  our transgressions.
Blessed are those you choose
and bring near to live in your courts!
We are filled with the good things of your house,
of your holy temple. (Ps. 65 2-5)

"Blessed are those you choose"---what an amazing and blessed thought!!  What an extreme blessing it is to be a Christian!! What an extreme privilege!!! "and bring near to live in your courts"--again, what an amazingly blessed thing!!  The Lord has chosen and drawn us to himself!! Even if someone came to this board in fear, unsure of their state with God--the very fact you are searching is because the Lord is drawing you!! Psalm 9:10 says "For thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee". Are you seeking for him? Then he Himself is drawing you, to "bring you near to live in his courts"!!! The Lord draws us in many ways---but it is all to bring us to Himself, so that He might bless us!
   
Sometimes we can get so caught up with daily life, or duties, or maybe our own failures, and forget that God chose us, we didn't choose him! "We love Him because He first loved us". He calls us and draws us to himself, to live close to Him because He loves us dearly. "As a Father pitieth his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him"(Ps. 103) "I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you" (Jer. 31:3 ) 

[Joe Sperling]

31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8

Thank God the New Covenant has nothing to do with what we can do or accomplish. The whole New Covenant is of Grace---everything having to do with my salvation is of Grace. No one can condemn me or separate me from God----because God Himself has justified me and keeps me through his great lovingkindness and forgiveness. IT IS FINISHED.

[Joe Sperling]

How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise! Selah (Psalm 84:1-4)

I thought of when Jesus says "Not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father" when I read
this Psalm this morning. God welcomes the little sparrows to nest in His very altars. And if He lets the sparrows come so close, what of us whom he loves so dearly?  "The very hairs on your head are all numbered".

[Joe Sperling]

For he shall give his angels charge over thee,
to keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up in their hands,
Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. (PS. 91)

I was reading a commentary on Jude and the writer was commenting on
Michael the archangel disputing with Satan over the body of Moses. He pointed
out that all angels are ministering spirits, even the great Michael. And these spirits
are sent to minister to us who will be the heirs of salvation. I have thought on this
before, but again this morning when I read Psalm 91 the above verses were there.

It is such a comforting thought that angels are actually there observing us, and helping
us along the way. We are not really sure what the "ministering" that they do IS----could
it be they encourage us with positive thoughts (just as our enemy can discourage us with
negative thoughts at times--usually resulting in unbelief, which is his goal), or could they
actually embrace us when they see us weeping, or in deep sadness?  They are such innocent,
holy and kind beings---and they LOVE to minister to us---because they absolutely love to do
anything God asks them to do. We can be sure they are for us, cheering us all the way!!

One last thought I was dwelling on last night--if the angels are ministering to us to become heirs,
we, who will actually sit on the thrones the fallen angels gave up, will we too become ministers in eternity to
another creation of God?  LOVE always ministers--LOVE always serves---  we will not inhabit heaven
to just enjoy ourselves    --- most likely we will be ministering to others, and doing what God sends us off to do.  What an amazing thought--to spend eternity ministering God's love to others who will then minister God's love to others, who will then minister God's love to others, who will then... well you get the
picture.  And imagine finally meeting these invisible helpers one day---I think when I cross over the line into eternity, one of them will hit me on the back of the head, shake his head and say "I can't believe you actually made it".   Just kidding---most likely they will greet us with tears in their eyes and say "welcome home!!".
 
 

[Joe Sperling]

"Tremble, earth, before the Lord, before the God of Jacob,
Who turned rock into pools of water, stone into flowing springs". (PS 114: 7,8)

I was reading this psalm this morning and these verses stood out to me. He mentions
he is the "God of Jacob" who "turned rock into pools of water, stone into flowing springs"

God did do those physical miracles, but perhaps a greater miracle is that he took Jacob,
a "supplanter", who tricked his own brother out of a birthright, and turned him into Israel,
the father of the 12 tribes, and a very godly man. In a spiritual sense, he took the rocky
heart of Jacob, and it turned it into a flowing spring of water.

"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14)

[Joe Sperling]

How can I repay the LORD for all the good done for me?
I will raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. (Ps. 116:12,13)

There is nothing in ourselves---no gift, no work, that can possibly repay the Lord for
all he has done for us.  David asks that question, then answers "I will raise the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord". All we can do is receive and be thankful--there is
nothing we can do, no work, to make ourselves more acceptable to God. Jesus paid it
all, all to him we owe. We needed mercy on the day of salvation, and we still need the same
mercy now as we needed then. What can we possibly do to make God love us more than he
already does? The answer is: nothing. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us".

[outdeep]

Not a Bible verse but a devotional from the Life Recovery Bible I found it encouraging. 


Bible Reading:  Job 14:1-6

We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

One thing that may make it hard to believe in God is that life often seems unfair to us.  We didn’t ask to be born into a dysfunctional family!  We didn’t have any say over the abuses and injustices we have suffered!  We didn’t choose our predisposition toward addiction.  And yet we are held accountable for things we can’t control on our own.  This makes it hard to initially turn to God as the Power to restore our sanity.  He seems unreasonable in his demands.

Job understood these feelings.  In the midst of his suffering he said, “How frail is humanity!  How short is life, and how full of trouble!  Like a flower, we blossom for a moment and then wither.  Like the shadow of a passing cloud, we quickly disappear.  Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature and demand an accounting from me?  Who can create purity in one born impure?”  (Job 14:1-4)

These are good questions – ones that most of us have asked in one form or another.  Job persisted in his questioning because deep inside he believed God to be good and fair, even though life wasn’t.  He was honest with his emotions and questions, but he never stopped seeking God.

There is a good answer to the question Job posed, one that will satisfy both our heart and our mind.  It will be found, however, only by those who are willing to work through the pain and unfairness of life and still seek God.  Those who seek him will find him.  In God’s loving arms, they will also find the answers they seek.

[Joe Sperling]

1  O praise the LORD, all ye nations:
         praise him, all ye people. 
2  For his merciful kindness is great toward us:
         and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever.
Praise ye the LORD. (Psalm 117)

I wanted to share something. I have often come to this psalm when reading through them and
thought "Why is the thing so short? It doesn't seem to say much more than the other Psalms are
saying".   

But when I read this yesterday I noticed this (I know this is nothing new, I just hadn't considered
it before, or heard anyone speak about this before):

David lived under the Law.  The Jews were God's people.  Even in Jesus' day it says "The Jews
had no dealings with the Samaritans", and the Jewish Christians in Acts were amazed when they saw that the
Holy Spirit had been given to the Gentiles.

But here is David saying "Praise the Lord, ALL YE NATIONS, praise him ALL YE PEOPLE. For his
merciful kindess is great towards US.."   When he says his merciful kindness is great towards
"US" he means "ALL NATIONS".   It made me wonder if the Jews, even in Jesus' day, when they
read this Psalm wondered what David was saying---"Is David saying that the God of the Jews is
the God of ALL people?  Is he trying to say that God is just as merciful to THEM as he is to US"?
Did the Pharisees try to ignore and avoid the reading of this Psalm? 

I found this to be very interesting, and had never thought about it before. 
 
 

[Joe Sperling]

Having a rough day?  Sit still for a moment and remember where we're headed. Look
away onto Jesus who right now is sitting at the right hand of the Father and interceding
for us.  He's "keeping us" so that He can meet us one day in that blessed New Jerusalem!!

"But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than [that of] Abel". (Heb. 12: 23,24)

To Jesus we are already there!  We "are come" and "are written"---PRAISE THE LORD!!!

This world and it's problems are nothing compared to where we are going!! And to whom we are going---
a Savior that loves us and prays for us minute by minute that our faith "fail not". We need to "cast aside every weight"(things that trouble us and burden us-- mountains out of molehills) and "look away unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith".  What an amazing destiny awaits us!! What an amazing friend!!

[Joe Sperling]

1  I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,
         from whence cometh my help. 
2  My help cometh from the LORD,
         which made heaven and earth. 
3  He will not suffer thy foot to be moved:
         he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 
4  Behold, he that keepeth Israel
         shall neither slumber nor sleep. 
5  The LORD is thy keeper:
         the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. 
6  The sun shall not smite thee by day,
         nor the moon by night. 
7  The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil:
         he shall preserve thy soul. 
8  The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in
         from this time forth, and even for evermore. (Ps. 121)

We can rest in the fact that we are being kept by the Lord. He constantly has his eyes on us--
and is constantly interceding for us.

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. (Heb. 7:25)

We literally are under the constant care of the Good Shepherd. He will only allow those things into our
lives that will be good for us (though some of these things may be unpleasant at the time--they all work to our good and to His glory).  Romans 8-28.
 
 

[Joe Sperling]

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 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—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:4-7)

These verses are amazing.  We were all on the same road, walking foolishly into eternity, and we were children of wrath. We were literally headed for perdition "like the rest of mankind". But (2) amazing words burst onto the scene, changing that forever:

"BUT GOD"---God met us--we weren't even looking for Him at all!  But he met us, and saved us! He pulled us off that road because of his rich mercy and "because of the great love with which he loved us"
And he did this while we were still sinners---in rebellion against him.  He died for us, and then raised us up to sit with him in heavenly places---and why?  "so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus"!!

It is too wonderful to comprehend with our finite minds. "But God"---how thankful we should be that he interfered with us and stopped us in our tracks! How grateful we should be that he made a way for us to be with Him where He is!!

[Joe Sperling]

As he was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?" He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry? How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions?"

Then he said to them, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
 
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath." (Mark 2:23-28)

It's amazing how we are all prone to take something and turn it into a legalistic ritual. The Pharisees had taken something God did FOR man, and turned it into a rule so strict that they sought to kill Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, or even picking grain to eat on the same day. How could they misconstrue the below verse so badly?

"For six days you may do your work, but on the seventh day you must rest, that your ox and your ass may also have rest, and that the son of your maidservant and the alien may be refreshed". (Ex. 23:12)

As Jesus said "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath"---this rule was made for man's benefit---man was not created to be a slave to this rule.   How easily we, just like the Pharisees, can become legalistic, and become slaves to rules that we set up for ourselves. 

  We, as Christians of course, are not under the law, but under Grace. We know that we don't "keep the Sabbath"---but often we keep other rules----rules we make for ourselves, or impose upon ourselves from the Bible.  We need to remember that we serve the Lord of the Sabbath himself, and not any man-made rules, or misinterpretations of Scriptures some men use to impose their legalism upon us.

Galatians 5:1 "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

[Mark C.]

Hi Joe!

  Boy am I glad that you are still posting on the BB!  

  Legalism is a "great" way to control others as religious leaders can elect themselves as God's very own special police force and judiciary.  When there is freedom to live your own life before God these guys no longer have a job and will have to go out and work for a living like the rest of us! (GG and Sons take note)

  David and his companions were hungry and ate the bread that was only lawful for the priests to eat.  Human need over the commands of God?!   This proves that God cares very much about our human needs and that spirituality is not achieved by some kind of Crucifixion of our soul.

  Jesus came "eating and drinking", and seemed to enjoy these normal human pleasures.  Any suffering in his life came out of a passion to bless others and this made his suffering spiritually meaningful.     

                                                                       God Bless,  Mark C.

[Joe Sperling]

The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love. 
The LORD is good to all, compassionate to every creature. (PS 145:8,9)

The LORD supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. 
The eyes of all look hopefully to you; you give them their food in due season.
You open wide your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
You, LORD, are just in all your ways, faithful in all your works.
You, LORD, are near to all who call upon you, to all who call upon you in truth. (PS 145: 14-18)

The Lord is always near, ready to raise up the downcast, ready to comfort. He's just a prayer away. 

[Joe Sperling]

Praise ye the LORD: for [it is] good to sing praises unto our God; for [it is] pleasant; [and] praise is comely.(V.1)    The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. (V.2)

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. (v.3)

He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by [their] names. (v.4)
Great [is] our Lord, and of great power: his understanding [is] infinite. (v.5)

The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.(v.6)   (Psalm 147)

Note how v. 3 speaks of God healing the broken in heart and healing them.  Then in V 4,5 the infinite knowledge and understanding of God is mentioned--His incredible omnipresence--He is the infinite God---the Creator of all that there is!!!!   But then, V.6 goes back to mentioning how God "lifts the meek".  It's like He has sandwiched his greatness inbetween two verses speaking of our weakness. (verses 4,5 sandwiched inbetween 3 and 6).

This omniscient, ominpresent, and omnipotent God, vast in power and glory, humbles himself to deal with us!!! To lift us up when we are down.  To encourage us in our way. To heal the broken heart, and bind up the wounds.

The Lord has named all the stars, though innumerable, he knows them all intimately.  Yet his main pleasure is not in the vastness of space. Though of infinite understanding and wisdom, God says His pleasure is in this:

Psa 147:11  The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

How incredible to know just how close God is to every one of us who hope in Him.