spiritualsnippets.com

Seeing life's events in the light of God's Word.

Nov 20

In All Circumstances

by Brenda Poulos

 

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1 Thessalonians 5:18- “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Look close.

Just what does this verse say God’s will is for us?

His will is that we give thanks in the midst of life’s circumstances.

Give thanks that we are saved by His grace.

Give thanks that He loves us and we will be in heaven with Him one day.

Give thanks for our many blessings.

When we face difficult circumstances, we may not feel thankful, but He knows our future and He knows where today and its circumstances will take us.

God wants us to be able to rejoice in His grace—even when we aren’t feeling well.

He wants us to pray for others, even when we have needs, ourselves.

He wants us to be thankful for our many blessings.

God knows what is best for us because He alone knows the future.

In the midst of it all, He is with us. He will not leave us or forsake us.

He will see us through.

And, because of all of that, we can be thankful in all circumstances.

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Nov 12

The Master of “Fake” News

by Brenda Poulos

 

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“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

Every time I turn on the television, I am bombarded with what we have come to call “fake news”: The President did this or that, a famous person died, someone was secretly married, and so on. Often, we find out the story was totally fabricated.

Some of the lies are fairly easy to spot, but others are more difficult to discern.

Satan is the master of lies, the Bible tells us. And, the lies he wants us to believe are those that affect our eternal lives.

Here are just two examples of his lies that mean the difference between life and death:

The first lie is that there are many ways to get to Heaven.

Oh, it sounds good to some people who want to believe that no one religion or group has all the answers. It may sound plausible to them that as long as we are sincere and do our best, it will turn out well for us in the end.

But, the Bible says that Jesus is the only way to salvation.

Secondly, Satan wants you to think that as long as you believe in something, it’s okay. 

But, God’s word says in Acts 4:12- “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” And, in 1 Timothy 2:5. it says “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

The Bible is not fake news, a scam or a lie.

THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD AND ONE WAY TO GET TO HIM. It is THROUGH JESUS CHRIST ALONE. 

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Nov 5

GRATEFUL HEARTS GIVE PRAISE

by Brenda Poulos

 

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Hebrews 13:15- “ Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”

 

Recent accounts of terrorist attacks tell of people who stepped into the line of fire to save loved ones.

Parents often sacrifice things they want in order to clothe and feed their families.

In the Old Testament, people sacrificed animals to cover their sins.

Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on an altar on Mt. Moriah.

God sacrificed his son as atonement for our sins.

Sacrifice: “An act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.”

Many give of their time and resources to further the gospel.

Some believers may even lose their lives in defense of it.

For most of us, this won’t happen, of course.

But, we can offer a “sacrifice of praise” from truly grateful hearts.—ones that openly profess his name.

 

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Oct 29

No More Night

by Brenda Poulos

 

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Revelation 22:5– “There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.”

 

 

When I was a youngster, we often played outside with the other kids in our neighborhood. We’d stay out until it started getting dark and our parents would call us inside for supper.

Yes, when the light started to fade, we knew our play time was nearing an end.

The most enjoyable times in life go by much too quickly, don’t they?

But the Bible tells us that an eternal place is being prepared for each of his children who know him as Savior. In heaven we will have unimaginably wonderful experiences that will never end.

No pain or suffering. No boredom. No hunger. No pain.

We will have friendships and laughter.

We won’t need to go to church, because we will live constantly and consciously in God’s presence.

Luke 6:23 says we will “Rejoice…and leap for joy, because great (will be our) reward in heaven.”

And although many of us will know the happiness of having our parents there with us, they won’t be calling us in when it gets dark…

for Jesus, the Light of the World, will be there.

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Oct 22

What Will It Cost?

by Brenda Poulos

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Luke 14:28- ““Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?”

 

Nothing is ever simple when my husband and I begin a new home renovation, but things go a lot smoother when we can keep “surprises” to a minimum.

That begins with a construction budget. If we leave something out of the original “to-do” list, it can cause sleepless nights later on.

“Counting the cost” in most basic terms is simply good planning. But, I’ve found this concept is applicable to other aspects of our lives, too.

The cost of a lie could be a lost friendship or job. Maybe it leads to contempt of court and jail time.

See the point?

The “cost” of certain actions may be loss of trust or imposed financial penalties. The cost of eating that extra brownie will be measured in pounds and inches.

I’m contemplating actions right now that need to be considered carefully. The affects are sure to be far reaching. The scripture above cautions me to take it slow, count the cost in terms of family dynamics and financial responsibilities, and take it to the Lord in prayer.

Have you a weighty decision to make? Have you counted the cost?

 

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Oct 15

The Double Whammy

by Brenda Poulos

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James 4:17- “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

 

If you had it to do all over again, what would you do over again?

Or, what would you not want to do over again?

Lies? Unkind thoughts? Cheating?

What about things you didn’t do? Things you wished you had…

Regrets.

James 4:17 reminds us that it is not only the wrong things we do that are sins, but also the good things we know we should do, but don’t.

Although I have committed my share of overt sins, it is those acts of kindness or promptings by The Holy Spirit to help others that I haven’t acted on that sadden me most.

Oh, sure, I have my reasons for not heeding the prompting of the Holy Spirit. For instance, I might reason that I didn’t give money to a homeless man on the street corner because he looked like he might just use it on drugs. Or, I didn’t fill a bag of clothing for the Veterans because what I had to give wasn’t appropriate for the season.

But, The Holy Spirit tells me that my responsibility is to be obedient. His reasons for nudging me might be to meet someone else’s physical or financial need. Or it could be that his request is about me exercising my faith, believing that he knows what he is doing.

It is my job to simply be an instrument to make that happen—

The Hands and Feet of Jesus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Oct 8

Are You Here, Again?

by Brenda Poulos

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Ephesians 1:13- “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.”

 

Think back to the moment in time when you accepted Jesus as your Savior.

I can still feel the exhilaration, the freedom, the joy.

It was an indescribable feeling. Nothing else has ever compared to it.

But, I kept going back.

That’s right. I needed the assurance that this was real—that God wasn’t going to change his mind…that I really was saved.

So, each week, when our pastor gave the invitation, I would walk to the front of the church and meet him at the altar. I saw the quizzical look on his face. He smiled with understanding.

Finally, he called me into his office for a conversation about salvation and explained why I could be assured of it…why I could be confident that I was, indeed, “really saved.”

Yes, salvation IS wonderful. It IS the best news ever. It IS amazing.

But, we don’t need to get saved, again, week after week. We don’t need to constantly pursue that initial feeling we had when the weight of sin was lifted from our shoulders.

We can rest in the assurance that faith in Christ brings.

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Oct 1

No More Fear

by Brenda Poulos

 

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2 Corinthians 5:1-“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”

 

3:00. Time to walk the dog.

We do fine on the first lap around the neighborhood. We meet and greet several others, then go on our way.

It’s not long until Baxter slows down.

When he falls behind, I give a tug on his leash.

The other neighborhood dogs run circles around us, walking proudly out in front of their owners. Baxter is quite a few steps behind me, now. I’m coaxing him along—leading him down the block.

Once home, he curls up on the sofa for his third nap of the day.

Yes, at seventeen, our faithful friend is feeling his age.

Every living thing ages, including pets and humans. We slow down. Sleep more. Eat and socialize less.

We tend to like staying home in familiar surroundings, often in our P.J.’s and slippers.

One day, realize we’re ready. Ready to go home.

We embrace the next phase: joining our Lord and our loved ones in heaven.

We claim the Biblical truth: to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We don’t fear death because we have the assurance of many scriptures, like the one above.

We claim victory over death because Jesus conquered its hold on us when he defeated Satan at the cross. Our acceptance of eternal life through Christ erases our fear of death and we rejoice as we arrive at our heavenly home.

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Sep 25

Jesus, the Rock of Our Salvation

by Brenda Poulos

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Matthew 16:13-18   

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[b] will not overcome it.”

 

In my last blog, I became a victim of what can happen when one takes a verse out of context.

Yes, I usually do use just one verse in each of my weekly Snippets. However, that is not always a good idea, especially if one does not carefully read the verses preceding the highlighted verse.

That is precisely what happened when I chose Matthew 16:18. I made a common mistake in thinking that the verse referred to Peter as the rock, when, in fact, it does not.

So, I want to attempt to correct my error by studying verses 13-18 in Matthew this week.

In verse 13, Jesus is asking his disciples if they really know who he is. Verses 14 and 15 record their replies. Then, in verse 16, we see that Peter understands that Jesus is the Son of God. And, in verse 17, Jesus says that God the Father had opened Peter’s eyes to who Jesus really was. (Jesus had never before explicitly taught the disciples the “fulness of his identity.”)

So, we see in verse 18, that Jesus is referring to himself–that he is the rock–the foundation of our faith—and not Peter.

I hope I have adequately explained these important verses. I stand corrected by God’s Word.

 

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Sep 18

UNMOVABLE

by Brenda Poulos

 

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Matthew 16:18– “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

So, what does it mean to be a “rock”?

We’ve heard the term “rock hard” as pertaining to muscles.

We’ve heard it when talking about someone having steady nerves.

It also means to have resolve and be unmovable.

When Jesus called Peter the “rock,” He gave us a visual picture of the very foundation of a building.

Jesus was beginning to build his church. Not a physical building, but a company of believers. Peter, the “rock” was there to support the others as they spread the “GOOD NEWS.”

Just as Jesus is the foundation of the Christian faith, we need to be prepared to support fellow believers in their daily Christian walk.

Whatever the future brings, His strength will uphold us and together we will be unmovable.

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