Posts Tagged God

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Judges 16:23-31

by Gerald C. Anderson, Sr. on December 13, 2012 at 8:43 am
Posted In: Daily Scriptures

SamsonSamson was the strongest man to ever live but he did have his flaws. For his entire story see my blog post entitled “The Real Man of Steal”. However, God saw pass his flaws and continued to be with him. The sacifice that Samson made was the beginning of the end for Philistine rule over the Israelites. Samson could have easily asked God to free him from his bondage and continue to live but instead he asked for his strength one last time to bring down the pillars on the Philistines. How many of us would have made such a sacifice?

The Death of Samson

23 Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”

24 When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,

“Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands, the one who laid waste our land and multiplied our slain.”

25 While they were in high spirits, they shouted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.

When they stood him among the pillars, 26 Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” 27 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. 28 Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

31 Then his brothers and his father’s whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led[a] Israel twenty years.

Footnotes:

a.Judges 16:31 Traditionally judged

Have a blessed day!

The Pastor’s Message

Don’t forget to check out 27 Hours, the new novel by Gerald C. Anderson, Sr. at Amazon.com!

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Matthew 11:25-30

by Daily Scriptures on November 1, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Posted In: Daily Scriptures

The Father Revealed in the Son

25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Have a blessed day!

The Pastor’s Message

Don’t forget to check out 27 Hours, the new novel by Gerald C. Anderson, Sr. at Amazon.com!

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When…

by Minister Sharon Finney on October 24, 2012 at 11:52 am
Posted In: Minister Sharon Finney

When I think where I was exactly ten years ago, I find that my commute and my current work situation isn’t as bad as I perhaps have made it out to be. I don’t deny the challenges associated with a 9 hour work day after driving for over 90 minutes. Today, my commute was roughly 2 hours and 37 minutes. I could not let myself complain, and I was fascinated because a lot of my time has been spent doing just that, complaining.

When, I speak of working far for from home, negative comments roll off my tongue at the blink of an eye. It’s amazing how much I could identify as being wrong with this situation. Somehow today seemed to be very different. I sipped a large cup of coffee while reflecting, and recognizing how bearable this really has been. I know the Lord has brought me safely through and out of demanding, challenging, seemingly unbearable situations and I have to admit how grateful I should be. You see, ten years ago today, I was in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as an Army Reservist. I didn’t want to be, but it was my reality, my appointed time for that stage of life. My unit had been activated due to the events of September 11, 2001. I did not anticipate this because I returned to the military when reserve units had not been doing much other than their peacetime assignment. I thought of this as a “safe” option and that I wouldn’t be taken away from my children.

<When I saw how quickly the needs of the military changed, I knew my brilliant plan would also be affected. The coming months would require major changes including arrangements for my children and their long-term care in my absence. As I planned, the list of needs continued to grow. Wow! Look at how demanding life was just ten short years ago! In my current situation, complaints point more toward what I want and how I want it. I want to be near even though the kids are capable of doing so much for themselves. Can I just pause for a minute and see that there are really blessings here? What if I had to rely exclusively on emails and phone calls as I did ten years ago? I suddenly feel convicted because I have immersed my thoughts with how long the drive has been coming and going. I have been able to see my family before and after work during the past fourteen months, yet I have spent a lot of this time murmuring and complaining.

When I honestly stop long enough to think about God’s goodness, I have to humble myself and tell the Lord “thank you”! Things could be totally different right now. Ten years ago, I couldn’t get back to the U.S. quick enough to see my family, yet, I had to wait. Today, the wait is a few short hours and I awaken each day to do it all over again. I may not see a perfect situation, but my heart is content in knowing that God hears and answers my prayers. He is STILL working things out for my good.

When I look around my desk, I see reminders such as: “No complaining, especially if you can’t change it” and “I can’t, but God can”! Today, I will purpose in my heart to see the blessings in every situation. I’ve known the importance of doing this for quite some time, but somehow strayed away from this level of thinking. I pray that someone who has also fallen into a complaining spirit will read these thoughts and allow the Lord to speak to their heart as well. None of what we experience comes as a surprise to our heavenly Father. Continue to call out “to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy…” (Jude 24).

Don’t forget to check out 27 Hours, the new novel by Gerald C. Anderson, Sr. at Amazon.com!

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James 4:13-17

by Daily Scriptures on October 9, 2012 at 5:46 am
Posted In: Daily Scriptures

Boasting About Tomorrow

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Have a blessed day!

The Pastor’s Message

Don’t forget to check out 27 Hours, the new novel by Gerald C. Anderson, Sr. at Amazon.com!

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2 Corinthians 5:11-21

by Daily Scriptures on October 2, 2012 at 12:20 pm
Posted In: Daily Scriptures

The Ministry of Reconciliation

11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Footnotes:
a. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Or Christ, that person is a new creation.
b. 2 Corinthians 5:21 Or be a sin offering

Have a blessed day!

The Pastor’s Message

Don’t forget to check out 27 Hours, the new novel by Gerald C. Anderson, Sr. at Amazon.com!

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Isaiah 54:16-17

by Daily Scriptures on September 11, 2012 at 12:05 am
Posted In: Daily Scriptures

“See, it is I who created the blacksmith
who fans the coals into flame
and forges a weapon fit for its work.
And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc;
17 no weapon forged against you will prevail,
and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
and this is their vindication from me,”
declares the Lord.

Have a blessed day!

The Pastor’s Message

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Acts 2:1-13

by Daily Scriptures on September 8, 2012 at 8:36 am
Posted In: Daily Scriptures

The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,[b] 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

Footnotes:
a. Acts 2:4 Or languages; also in verse 11
b. Acts 2:9 That is, the Roman province by that name

Have a blessed day!

The Pastor’s Message

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Acts 16:25-34

by Daily Scriptures on September 7, 2012 at 8:56 am
Posted In: Daily Scriptures

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

Have a blessed day!

The Pastor’s Message

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Romans 6:1-14

by Daily Scriptures on September 3, 2012 at 7:42 am
Posted In: Daily Scriptures

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Footnotes:
a. Romans 6:6 Or be rendered powerless

Have a blessed day!

The Pastor’s Message

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Isaiah 59:19

by Daily Scriptures on August 31, 2012 at 6:57 am
Posted In: Daily Scriptures

The BibleSomeone shared this scripture with me yesterday and I feel compelled to share it with everyone. If you feel your enemies coming at you don’t worry, the Lord will handle it for you.

19 So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.

Have a blessed day!

The Pastor’s Message

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