Wednesday, August 15, 2012

11 random Bible verses of encouragement and comfort


The Holy Bible is not a static book. It won’t give you the same message, emotions and instructions every day. Some day you might read a sad passage. On another occasion, you might find something inspirational and the next day you will laugh, because you have found some funny Bible verse. In today’s post I want to share 11 random Bible verses of encouragement with you. I could have compiled a list of 300, but let me keep that for another time. 

1. Psalm 37:4:” Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.“

2. Psalm 103:2-3:” Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases...“.

3. Jeremiah 29:11:” For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.“

4. 1 Peter 5:7:” Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.“

5. Proverbs 16:3:” Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.“

6. 1 John 5:14-15:” This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

7. James 4:7-8:” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

8. Hebrews 2:18:” Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

9. Philippians 4:19:” And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

10. Romans 8:28:” And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.“

11. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:“ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Ok, this ends my short list of random Bible verses of encouragement. Hope to continue these type of verses soon. 

See also:

http://bible-verse-of-the-day-blog.blogspot.com/2013/07/15-inspirational-bible-verses-for.html
http://bible-verse-of-the-day-blog.blogspot.com/p/encouraging-bible-verses.html

Monday, August 13, 2012

Scripture of the day


The scripture that is my mind today is from 2 Peter 1:1:”Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours.”

The part that startles me most here is that we (all Christians) have received faith from God that has the same value as that (faith) of the great apostles of Jesus. We tend to exalt apostles and they really had a very special call from God, mission and were honored greatly by God to become servants, apostles and friends of Jesus. However, if we take faith as substance, our faith is of the same quality that apostles had. 

It means we did not get something different than apostles got. It also means we can get answers from God and do the works that the first disciples did. You can pray and see results in the same way they did. You can expect a miracle as they did. 

We also got the same Holy Spirit that they got. Yes, He is no different. The Spirit is of no inferior category, power and etc. He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God for us as He was for them. 

So, do not belittle your God, or yourself. You are his servant, messenger and son (or daughter). He is the same today as He was yesterday. Apostles are in Heaven and they cannot help us to do things for God (except by means of their writings). But you have the same faith and the same Spirit and they did and this enables you to great things for your God. 

What a hope, joy and privilege. Use it for the blessing of others and the expansion of the kingdom of God.
Hope you were blessed and encouraged. 

Friday, July 27, 2012

How many pages does Bible have


Those who are new to Christianity might sometimes ask the question. There is no need to be surprised about that. We are not born in the world where Christian message would be all around us. Some of us have not heard a single message from the Gospel and have no idea what Jesus did for us before we really got converted. So, how do we know what books are in the Bible, what Old and New Testaments are, to say nothing of the number of pages the Bible has!

Well, to tell the truth we cannot exactly answer the question. The most correct answer would be: a lot of. The fact is that there is a multitude of Bible versions and those versions have different number of pages. It does not mean those Bibles are different in terms of the number of Biblical books they contain or the Canonical content that they have. No! But some might have a lot of commentaries, others might not. Some might have study guides and parallel verses and etc. 

Most Bibles have over one thousand pages though. Hope the answer satisfied your curiosity. Sorry for not being more exact, but it is not easy to do that. 

God bless you and hope to see you tomorrow. I am going on holiday, so there is a chance I will update the blog only after 10 days. But if I get wireless connection somewhere at the place I will definitely write a line or two for you. Bye.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Inspirational Bible verse of the day


I was thinking how to inspire you and myself today and decided to give a verse from Romans 8:31:”What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?“. 

People are searching for partners and they do not want to have enemies. The stronger your friends and partners are the more secure you can feel. This gives you a lot of opportunities in various areas of life. Now, imagine having God on your side! What if He is willing and ready to bless, support and help in anything you do? That would be awesome. And it is! If you have been reconciled with Him through His Son’s blood and have become his child. And God does a lot of good things for his kids. 

He is not against you, because He has removed your sins and cast them away as far as the east is from the west. He remembers them no more. He is for you. It would be terrible having God Almighty against you. You might have the strongest people on your side, but if you have Him against you, you are finished. Thanks God for Jesus redemption and new nature in our hearts. 

Hope it inspires you. See you tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

My 3 favorite Bible verses


While contemplating on what I should write today for the blog and idea came to share my 3 favorite Bible verses with you. I took some time to figure out what they are, but when I did I found out that all of them are about the power of faith. For me, that is one of the greatest powers in the world and God, in His mercy allowed us to use it for our and other people benefit. It is amazing to see the great things happening when one trusts God with all of his heart. Let us look at the verses and maybe you will discover this amazing force of trusting God Almighty too. 

The first extract is from Romans 4:17-22:” As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead —since he was about a hundred years old —and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness. (NIV)”

Not many preach on the meaning of the episode. Some don’t do it right. The Holy Bible is crystal clear on two realities: visible and invisible. God is transcendent and He can operate and be (He is) in both of them. We, however, tend to rely on our five physical senses that are dependent on the visible reality. Faith, on the other hand operates in invisible reality. Here we see both God and Abraham operating in the invisible reality. Those two realities can contradict each other as in the case of Abraham. The visible fact was that Abraham could not have children, the invisible one stated that he was the father of many nations. Is it some kind of schizophrenia? No, it is acknowledgment that both spiritual and material worlds exist and you need different ‘senses’ to walk in those. To walk in spiritual realm you need faith. I bet you know what you need to walk in this visible reality. You do not need higher education to say that: five senses. That’s it! However, if we dare to call ourselves believers we need to walk by faith and not by sight. As Abraham did!

The second episode is from Mark 11:22-23:” “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.(NIV). 

That is another tremendous example of the power of faith in God. This is God’s kind of faith. Do you know that God has never doubted anything? He never does anything with doubt. If He says something, He believes it. If He does something, He believes that He will be successful. And Jesus tells us to have the same kind of faith that God has. I love it! He said ‘anyone’. That includes you!

The third episode is from Matthew 9:21-22:” She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.(NIV)”. 

The thing that amazes me in this episode is that Jesus was going his ways to pray for a daughter of synagogue leader to be healed. He did not do anything for that woman to be healed. He was just walking. He neither objected, nor approved of anybody touching him. He was not even aware who did this. Power left him at the touch of that woman. This is a very shocking example. We pray, cry and ask for God to do things and here this woman believes that if she only touches him she will be healed. No prayer, no asking just a bold act of faith. Quite a good lesson on faith?

Ok, I believe it is time for me to finish. I hope you enjoy the verses for the day. God bless you. See you tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

I do not like old kjv Bible


It may sound pretty radical for the fans of old kjv Bible, but I do not really like it. Some fanatically believe that it is the real true and inspirational version of the real word of God. I could not agree less. If you wanted to read 100 percent exact version of the word you would have had to live in each period of history when each separate book was written and record exact words in exact context.  This is, of course, impossible. 

However, I and I hope you would not doubt authenticity of the Holy Bible despite the fact that there are so many versions of it. Now, what makes me unhappy about the version and often quotations from it during sermons is that we live in a modern world with a language that modern world speaks. You use the language at home with your spouse, children, parents, brothers and sister, you use it at work, you use it in a shop, club and wherever you go. 

And now, all of a sudden you come to God and you have to listen to His word in old English. It is so contrary to the very Spirit of the Book. In the Old Testament God would come to his people, in generation after generation: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and etc. and spoke in THEIR language. 

So, why would He speak to us in some weird language now? God transcends time and He does not change in his nature, but He always speaks to any generation in it’s’ language. This is something He is flexible about.
I am not crazy about the issue. But I think using this version of the Word is simply weird. It is one of the things that is external and has no influence for our salvation. But in terms of reaching this generation I believe we have to be more flexible with the way we communicate the message of the Gospel. And, unfortunately, Old King James Bible is not the best choice for doing this. 

Ok, I hope you understand my point here. I also believe that old kjv lovers will not get mad at me. Let us forgive one another. God bless you.

See also: