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  Read Psalm 1 Psalm 1 NLT - BOOK ONE (Psalms 1–41) -Psalm 1 - Oh, - Bible Gateway   Psalm 1:1-3- Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.   The Psalms were written for the people of God with worship in mind, and they come in many different styles- thanksgiving, lament, enthronement, wisdom, etc. God's Word declares that all of us sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), so how does one grow in righteousness and enter into the process of learning how to sin less and less? We get to do our part in cooperating with God by being firmly rooted in God's Word and connected to the living God in personal, living connection. Jesus declared, "Remain in me, and I w...

  Read John 17 John 17 NLT - The Prayer of Jesus - After saying all - Bible Gateway   John 17:17, 21- Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.   In John 17 Jesus is praying for His followers and all who will come after them to claim the name of Jesus as their Lord and Savior in the future as well. In one breath He asks the Father to make us holy by His truth, and in the next breath Jesus desires a unity between His followers that is so close that it reflects the unity between the Father and His very own Son., who offered Himself up as a sacrifice on our behalf.   I think it's really important to keep these two verses together. Truth without a desire for genuine unity can easily become a battering ram that does more harm than good, but unity for the sake of unity alon...

  Read John 11 John 11 NLT - The Raising of Lazarus - A man named - Bible Gateway   John 11:43-44- Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”   When Jesus urged the people to roll away the stone to the tomb, Martha lifted up her concern about the smell after being in the tomb for four days. In the KJV she says bluntly, "He stinketh," meaning he's really, really dead and done. As Jesus called forth new life in Lazarus, we can easily imagine a mummy-like figure standing before the people, and then Jesus giving those who had just witnessed the miracle a role in the process. Jesus, in essence, said, "You all go stand with Lazarus in his new life, and help him out of the old grave clothes." This is all, of course, a foreshadowing of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from His death on the cross and a less...

    Read John 4 John 4 NLT - Jesus and the Samaritan Woman - Jesus - Bible Gateway   John 4:25-26-  The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  Then Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah!”   Jesus had a barrier breaking, obstacle overcoming encounter by engaging in a public conversation at a well with a Samaritan (Jews often went to great lengths to avoid these folks they considered to be like "black sheep third cousins") woman (Jewish males didn't generally speak so publicly with a woman not his wife) with questionable morals (Jesus told her she had already had 5 husbands and the man she was currently living with wasn't her husband). She probably experienced public shunning and shaming as evidenced by her coming to the well in the heat of the day at a time when no one else was there. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus isn't recorded as speaking so forthrightly...

  Read Proverbs 30 Proverbs 30 NLT - The Sayings of Agur - The sayings of - Bible Gateway   Proverbs 30:33- As the beating of cream yields butter and striking the nose causes bleeding, so stirring up anger causes quarrels.   I suspect Proverbs has so much to say about dealing well with our anger because it was an older man giving advice to younger men. Here Agur says t he better part of wisdom is to know that in most instances stirring up anger does little to bring people together nor does it solve problems; instead, it almost always provides fuel for a raging fire that creates deeper conflict and causes far more damage. Is there another side of the coin here? There often is when it comes to individual proverbs. Can we discover in God's Word any other occasions when righteous anger served the greater purposes of God? Yes, but only when it was under control, righteous in nature, and focused on godly solutions.    A number of causes for loving m...