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Posted by David Carroll
Psalm 56:3,10-11 (NKJV)
Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.
In God (I will praise His word), In the Lord (I will praise His word),
In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
You see this statement on t-shirts today, "No Fear." It's a macho thing to do. But what do they base this bravery on? Typically it is the teenager who feels he is immortal, that nothing will happen to him. Yet the fear of death grips everyone at some point, and for good reason. Death is not just annihilation, you
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Posted by David Carroll
I love you Lord...
John 3:16 [NKJV]
For God so loved the world
... because you first loved me.
Posted by David Carroll
Mark 16:20 (NKJV)
And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
This is the last verse of the gospel of Mark and speaks of the many miracles that the apostles performed. They were able to miraculously heal, speak other languages, raise the dead. It seems that these abilities would be useful today. But this verse explains why God allowed them to do such things. The miracles were called signs which confirmed or authenticated the word they were preaching. Where is that word today? It is in our Bible, both
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Posted by David Carroll
Numbers 15:32-36 (NKJV)
Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him.
Then the Lord said to Moses, "The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp." So, as the Lord commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones,
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Posted by David Carroll
Numbers 14:20-24 (NIV)
The Lord replied, "I have forgiven them, as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times--not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me
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Posted by David Carroll
Mark 14:27 (NKJV)
Then Jesus said to them, "All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:
'I will strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered.'
Mark 14:31 (NKJV)
But he spoke more vehemently, "If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" And they all said likewise.
Mark 14:50 (NKJV)
Then they all forsook Him and fled.
Jesus predicted that his disciples would abandon Him when He was taken away to be crucified. Peter boasted that he would not and the others agreed.
Then we see that indeed all of them left Jesus just
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Posted by David Carroll
Psalm 51:16-17 (NKJV)
For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart--These, O God, You will not despise.
I've been reading through all the Levitical Laws detailing very specific instructions on how the Israelites were to bring their sacrificial offerings. These were peculiar and very bloody. It is not until we see Jesus on the cross that be begin to understand the incredible extent to which God went to make it possible for us to dwell with Him.In these
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Posted by David Carroll
Numbers 9:13-14 (NKJV)
But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of the Lord at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin.
'And if a stranger dwells among you, and would keep the Lord 's Passover, he must do so according to the rite of the Passover and according to its ceremony; you shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger and the native of the land.' "
I am fascinated by two
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Posted by David Carroll
I love you Lord...
John 3:16 [NKJV]
For God so loved the world
... because you first loved me.
Posted by David Carroll
Matthew 22:29 (NKJV)
Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God."
Anytime you are wondering what to believe in, go to the Bible. What ever it says, believe it.Anytime you are concerned because you can't figure out how God could have done something, be it a miracle or whatever, you are expressing doubt in His awesome power.Once you get these two principles right, you can go as deep as you want to in any subject and you never have to fear because you can take comfort that what you don't understand, God
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Posted by David Carroll
Mark 12:17 (NKJV)
And Jesus answered and said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they marveled at Him.
Have you ever known someone who always seemed to know the right things to say? No matter the situation, be it difficult or awkward or even pleasant, they seem to have an easy time with words.Jesus was sparring with the Pharisees who were always trying to trip Him up. But they were always frustrated by his brilliant and penetrating replies.I am praying that God will give me the mind of Christ,
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Posted by David Carroll
Psalm 45:6-7 (NKJV)
Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.
When I first started reading this psalm, I was unsure whether the king spoken of was an earthly king or not. Then I got to these verses. No doubt about it, this speaks of the Messiah King who is God and yet is anointed by God with the oil of gladness. There is only one who is both God
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Posted by David Carroll
I love you Lord...
John 3:16 [NKJV]
For God so loved the world
... because you first loved me.
Posted by David Carroll
Leviticus 24:13-16 (NKJV)
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
"Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.
Reading
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Posted by David Carroll
I love you Lord...
John 3:16 [NKJV]
For God so loved the world
... because you first loved me.
Posted by David Carroll
Mark 9:23-24 (NKJV)
Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"
This man said that he believed but then immediately asks the Lord for help with is unbelief. Which is it? In this case, he wants to believe, that is to have faith, but he recognizes that his faith is not perfect that that there are still lingering doubts. So this unbelief is not a refusal to believe but rather recognition of weakness. So he asks
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Posted by David Carroll
Leviticus 19:9-10 (NKJV)
'When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God.
Our governmental welfare system is broken. It discourages those who are on it from getting married, it encourages them to have even more illegitimate children, and it discourages them from finding work.Notice God's welfare system above. The poor have the
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Posted by David Carroll
Leviticus 18:22 (NKJV)
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.
The Bible is very clear, homosexuality is a sin detestable to God. There are churches that condone this behavior today. The only way these churches can do this is to say that the Bible is not the word of God. I wonder what these churches base their hope in?This sin is grouped with all sorts of other sins and is just one of many. Never think that because a Christian says homosexuality is sin that he is overlooking other sins. No, they are also
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Posted by David Carroll
Mark 7:14-16 (NKJV)
When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, "Hear Me, everyone, and understand: There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!"
I heard my pastor say that if you want to see what a person is made of, just jostle them up and see what spills out. We put on our best faces for the world to see but so often it is all
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Posted by David Carroll
Mark 6:46 (NKJV)
And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray.
In this chapter, Jesus had just finished feeding the 5,000 with only two fishes and five loaves of bread. And He was about to walk out on the water to the disciples who were struggling with their boat in a storm. But Mark records that Jesus departed to the mountain to pray. Crowds had pressed in on Him all day, but He wanted to be alone with His Father in prayer. From the text we can know that he spent about ten hours in prayer
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Posted by David Carroll
Mark 6:4-6 (NKJV)
But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house." Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.
Only when the gospel is heard and believed does it have power to change lives. Jesus hometown acquaintances were intrigued with his wisdom and teaching but they were unable to believe his words. It was
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Posted by David Carroll
Leviticus 11:44 (NKJV)
For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
God gives the Israelites instructions regarding what is clean and unclean. Animals with split hooves and who chew the cud are clean while others are not. It seems so strange. While we can see obvious health benefits for some of these laws, others have no rational basis.In the above verse God tells us what is going on. To be holy means to be set
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Posted by David Carroll
Mark 4:26-29 (NKJV)
And He said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."
A farmer knows how to grow and harvest a crop. But does he really know what is happening? The above verse says
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Posted by David Carroll
Leviticus 7:37-38 (NKJV)
This is the law of the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the consecrations, and the sacrifice of the peace offering, which the Lord commanded Moses on Mount Sinai, on the day when He commanded the children of Israel to offer their offerings to the Lord in the Wilderness of Sinai.
These verses summarize the seven preceding chapters of the details God had given to Moses regarding the ordinances of sacrifice. By the length of the passage and by the minute details we know that this must be very important to God.The laws concerning
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Posted by David Carroll
Psalm 37:4-5 (NKJV)
Delight yourself also in the Lord , And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.
You can have your desires! This is a wonderful promise. When I delight myself in the Lord, then I find my desires line up with His desires. Notice the verbs in these verses that relate to us: delight, commit, trust. I find great pleasure in considering the things of God. When this is true, I find it easier to surrender myself to Him. Now
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Posted by David Carroll
Leviticus 4:27-31 (NKJV)
'If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done, and is guilty, or if his sin which he has committed comes to his knowledge, then he shall bring as his offering a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and kill the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering. Then the priest shall take some of its
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Posted by David Carroll
I love you Lord...
John 3:16 [NKJV]
For God so loved the world
... because you first loved me.
Posted by David Carroll
Exodus 40:36-38 (NKJV)
Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.
The Israelites enjoyed the company of the Lord in their camp as the Lord tabernacled with them. They could see Him as a pillar of
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