Encouragement - Oxygen To The Soul 1 Thessalonians 5:11 Proverbs 16:24 Proverbs 16:21 Deuteronomy 3:28 Job 16:5 Psalms 10:17 Isaiah 1:17 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 Hebrews 3:12-13 09.30.15

ENCOURAGEMENT – OXYGEN TO THE SOUL

BREAD

11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.   1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV)

24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.   Proverbs 16:24 (NIV)

21 The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant words promote instruction.  Proverbs 16:21 (NIV)

28 But commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead this people across and will cause them to inherit the land that you will see.    Deuteronomy 3:28 (NIV)

5 But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.  Job 16:5 (NIV)

17 You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry.   Psalms 10:17 (NIV)

17 Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.    Isaiah 1:17 (NIV)

16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.   2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 (NIV)

12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.  Hebrews 3:12-13 (NIV)

BUTTER

“There are high spots in all of our lives and most of them have come about through encouragement from someone else. I don't care how great, how famous or successful a man or woman may be, each hungers for affirmation.”   George M. Adams

“Encouragement costs you nothing to give, but it is priceless to receive.”   Anonymous

“Though it might be easier to say nothing, how much better to say something. To get our focus off ourselves and on others. To look for ways to lift up rather than tear down. To whisper words from God and bring refreshment to a parched soul.”   Liz Curtis Higgs

“On Him then reckon, to Him look, on Him depend:  and be assured that if you walk with Him, look to Him and expect help from Him, He will never fail you.  An older brother, who has known the Lord for forty-four years, who writes this, says for your encouragement that He has never failed him.  In the greatest difficulties, in the heaviest trials, in the deepest poverty and necessities, He has never failed me; but because I was enabled by His grace to trust in Him, He has always appeared for my help.  I delight in speaking well of His Name.”   George Mueller 

“Being loving and encouraging catches a person’s soul more than angrily defending ideas.  Listening to people without condemning them and seeking to encourage them where they are builds bridges and creates relationships.”   Tim Baker

“God employs His people to encourage one another.  We should delight that God usually works for human beings with other human beings.  It forms a bond of friendship, and being mutually dependent on one another, we are fused more completely into one family.  Work to help others, and especially strive to encourage them.  Talk cheerily to the young and anxious inquirer, lovingly try to remove obstacles out of his way.  When you find a spark of grace in the heart, kneel down and blow it into a flame.  Leave the young believer to discover the roughness of the road by degrees, but tell him of the strength which dwells in God, of the sureness of the promise, and of the charms of communion with Christ.  Aim to comfort the sorrowful, and to animate the hopeless.  Speak a word in season to him who is weary, and encourage those who are fearful to go on their way with gladness.  God encourages you by His promises; Christ encourages you as He points to the heaven He has won for you, and the Spirit encourages you as He works in you to will and to do of His own will and pleasure.  Imitate divine wisdom, and encourage others according to the Word.”   Charles H. Spurgeon 

HEART SAVOR

·       Encouragement costs nothings and yet is priceless.

·       We strengthen one another by encouraging words.

·       Encouraging words bring comfort to the weary soul.

Heaven Is For Real John 14:1-4 Isaiah 57:1-2 1 Corinthians 15:51-58 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Revelation 21:2-4 Matthew 6:19-21 Isaiah 12:2-3 09.28.15

HEAVEN IS FOR REAL

BREAD

1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”    John 14:1-4 (NIV)

1 The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. 2 Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.   Isaiah 57:1-2 (NIV)

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.   1 Corinthians 15:51-58 (NIV)

13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NIV)

2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”   Revelation 21:2-4 (NIV)

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”   Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)

2 “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.” 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.   Isaiah 12:2-3 (NIV)

BUTTER

“‘Enter ye in at the strait gate.’  We can only get to heaven through Jesus Christ and by no other way; we can only get to the Father through Jesus Christ, and we can only get into the life of a saint in the same way….Heavenly places in Christ Jesus is where God raises us.  We do not get there by climbing, by aspiring, by struggling, by consecration, or by vows; God lifts us right straight up out of sin, inability and weakness, lust and disobedience, wrath and self-seeking – lifts us right up out of all this, ‘up, up to the whiter than snow shine,’ to the heavenly places where Jesus Christ lived when He was on earth, and where He lives to this hour in the fullness of the plenitude of His power.  May God never relieve us from the wonder of it.”   Oswald Chambers    

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”  Lewis

“A little faith will bring your soul to heaven, but a lot of faith will bring heaven to your soul.”   D. L. Moody

“Our duty as Christians is always to keep heaven in our eye and earth under our feet.”   Matthew Henry

“Taking a stand for Christ is increasingly unpopular in our pagan and pluralistic society.  If you believe that God created the world, that He is a God of both love and holiness, that Jesus died and rose again for our sins and is the only way to heaven, and that we have a responsibility to take that message to a needy world – those beliefs will vilify you in many segments of our society.  Our world is determined to intimidate, marginalize, and silence Christians.  But our goal isn’t popularity; it’s to know Him and make Him known.  We shouldn’t be needlessly offensive, but we shouldn’t be afraid of the ‘offense of the cross’.  These are exciting days in which to bear a witness for our Savior!”       Robert J. Morgan

“Most of us find it very difficult to want ‘Heaven’ at all – except in so far as ‘Heaven’ means meeting again our friends who have died.  One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained:  our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world.  Another reason is that when the real want for Heaven is present in us, we do not recognize it.  Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world.  There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.”   C.S. Lewis

“Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.”   Thomas V. Moore

HEART SAVOR

·       Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people.

·       Earth cannot compare to heaven.

·       There will be no sorrow in heaven.

Pride Verses Humility Proverbs 8:13 Proverbs 11:2 Proverbs 16:18 Proverbs 29:23 Isaiah 25:11 Daniel 4:37 Psalms 18:27 1 Peter 5:5-6 09.25.15

PRIDE VERSES HUMILITY

BREAD

13 To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.   Proverbs 8:13 (NIV)

2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.   Proverbs 11:2 (NIV)

18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.   Proverbs 16:18 (NIV)

23 A man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.   Proverbs 29:23 (NIV)

God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands.   Isaiah 25:11 (NIV)

37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.   Daniel 4:37 (NIV)

27 You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.   Psalms 18:27 (NIV)

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.   1 Peter 5:5-6 (NIV)

BUTTER

“Pride alienates man from heaven; humility leads to heaven.”  Bridget of Sweden

“Don’t slack off seeking, striving, and praying for the very same things that we exhort unconverted people to strive for, and a degree of which you have had in conversion. Thus pray that your eyes may be opened, that you may receive sight, that you may know yourself and be brought to God’s feet, and that you may see the glory of God and Christ, may be raised from the dead, and have the love of Christ shed abroad in your heart. Those that have most of these things still need to pray for them; for there so much blindness and hardness and pride and death remaining that they still need to have that work of God upon them, further to enlighten and enliven them. This will be a further bringing out of darkness into God’s marvelous light, and a kind of new conversion…”  Jonathan Edwards

“Here is the divine antidote against the pride and restless ambition of the men of this world.  Nothing is more sad than to witness a pushing, bustling, forward, self-confident spirit and style in those who profess to be followers of Him who was meek and lowly in heart.  It is such a flagrant contradiction of the spirit and precepts of Christianity, and is a sure accompaniment of an unbroken condition of the soul.  It is utterly impossible for anyone to indulge in a boastful, pretentious, self-confident spirit, if ever he has really measured himself in the presence of God.  To be much alone with God is the sovereign remedy for pride and self-complacency.  May we know the reality of this in the secret of our own souls.  May the good Lord keep us truly humble, in all our ways, simply leaning on Himself and his grace…”  C H Macintosh

“Pride not only withdraws the heart from God, but lifts it up against God.”   Thomas Manton

“Before you can (know you are right with God) you must not only be troubled for your sins of your life, but also for the sins of your best duties and performances...before you can be at peace with God, there must be a deep conviction before you can be brought out of your self-righteousness; it is the last idol taken out of your heart. The pride of our heart will not let us submit to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But if you never felt that you had no righteousness of your own or if you never felt the deficiency of your own righteousness, you cannot come to Jesus Christ.”  George Whitefield

“And if you don’t lie prostrate on the ground before that cross, you have never seen it:  if you are not humbled in the presence of Jesus, you don’t know Him.  You were so lost that nothing could save you but the sacrifice of God’s only begotten.  Think of that, and as Jesus lowered Himself for you, bow yourself in lowliness at His feet.  A sense of Christ’s amazing love to us has a greater tendency to humble us than even the conscious awareness of our own guilt……Pride cannot live beneath the cross.”   Charles H. Spurgeon

“Pride is utter poverty of soul disguised as riches.”   John Climacus

“It’s really your ugly pride that makes you afraid.   Just bow in humility — and you’ll rise up in courage.  It’s only pride’s hunger for perfection that paralyzes a heart.  It’s being enslaved to perfectionism that keeps us enslaved to fear.  Pride is fear’s father — and pride is the kin to all cowards.  Courage for the impossible can only be found in the possibility of humility. Because ‘This is the one God esteems:  he who is humble…’ (Isaiah 66:2).   Courage lives in the heart of the lowly… those who can embrace humility and the possibility of imperfection … because that needy place is the place we meet God.  Humility births courage and is brother to the brave.”   Ann Voskamp

“Pride is as safely the sign of destruction as the change of mercury in the weather-glass is the sign of rain; and far more infallibly so than that.  When men have ridden the high horse, destruction has always overtaken them…God hates high looks, and never fails to bring them down.  All the arrows of God are aimed at proud hearts.”   Charles H. Spurgeon  

HEART SAVOR

·       God hates pride but lifts up the humble.  Pride show up not in the mirror but in relationships.

·       A prideful person tears their house down with their own hands.

·       God is able to humble the prideful.

Standing On The Promises Deuteronomy 33:26-27 Isaiah 40:28-31 Isaiah 43:1-3 John 14:27 1 Corinthians 10:13 Proverbs 2:6-8 Jeremiah 33:2-3 Isaiah 41:10 09.23.15

STANDING ON THE PROMISES

BREAD

26 “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty. 27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you, saying, ‘Destroy him!’”   Deuteronomy 33:26-27 (NIV)

28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.   Isaiah 40:28-31 (NIV)

1 But now, this is what the Lord says-- he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. 3 For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”   Isaiah 43:1-3 (NIV)

27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.   John 14:27 (NIV)

13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.   1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)

6 For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. 7 He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, 8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.   Proverbs 2:6-8 (NIV)

2 “This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it--the Lord is his name: 3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’”   Jeremiah 33:2-3 (NIV)

10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.   Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)

BUTTER

“God’s promises are like the stars; the darker the night, the brighter they shine.”   David Nicholas

Written to his wife during one difficult time in the work of the China Inland Mission, “We have twenty-five cents - and all the promises of God!”  J. Hudson Taylor

“We as Christians know that faith is taking God at His Word.  And we realize that faith does not get us around our problems, but it gets us through them.  Such a promise is found in Psalm 48:14, ‘For this is God, our God forever and ever.  He will be our guide even to death.’  His promise then is no matter how difficult we may find life to be, He will guide us all the way home.  Isaiah 42:16 ‘And I will bring the blind by a way they know not.  I will lead them in paths that they have not known.’  This is the way God leads His own.  You and I are blind to the future, but He is not, and He has promised to lead all who will put their trust in Him.  Sometimes, because our circumstances are totally out of our control, we not only have to believe these promises, but we must put them to the test.”    Wales Goebel

“Life holds for all of us, from time to time, desolate places. All that was ordinary and secure and familiar and dependable seems a thousand miles away. Here we are in this strange wilderness- out of work, ill, robbed of something or someone, banished from a privilege that once was ours, no longer needed, confused, forsaken. It is a place of dryness, loneliness, isolation, helplessness, fear. We feel as though we are walking where no human being was ever meant to walk, a place of dragons. Don't despair. Even though you find no signs, be sure that thousands have traversed this terrain. When you reach the far side you will meet them. But there is something that is far more comforting than that. You are not alone now. Always beside you is Another whose voice you may not hear, whose arm you may not feel, whose footprint you may not see. Nevertheless His Word is utterly to be trusted: "I cared for you in the wilderness.” (Hosea 13:5)  Elisabeth Elliot

“Pleading the promises of God is the whole secret of prayer.”   Martyn Lloyd-Jones 

“A fixed, constant attention to the promises, and a firm belief in them, would prevent solicitude and anxiety about the concerns of this life. It would keep the mind quiet and composed in every change, and support and keep up our sinking spirits under the several troubles of life….Christians deprive themselves of their most solid comforts by their unbelief and forgetfulness of God’s promises.  For there is no extremity so great but there are promises suitable to it, and abundantly sufficient for our relief in it.”   Samuel Clarke 

“God wants us to reconnect with the powerful and timeless things He has done in the past, enabling us to build on them rather than always starting over.  He not only desires that we be encouraged by remembering His past faithfulness, but also to realize that the promises and anointings released during those seasons are still available today.”    Dutch Sheets

“O Lord, I plead thy precious promises; and thou canst not deny thy word.  Thou hast laid thyself under obligation to help a feeble, praying soul.  Then let thy Holy Spirit abide with me, to quicken my soul when fainting, and to rule my heart in all things, that no sin may have dominion over me.”   K. H. Von Bogatzky

HEART SAVOR

• ·       I can trust the promises of God.
• ·       God’s promises shine the brightest in the most difficult of circumstances.
• ·       I am to plead His promises in prayer. 

Walk A Worthy Path 2 Peter 1:3-11 Colossians 1:9-12 Ephesians 4:1-2 Philippians 1:27-28 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 09.21.15

WALK A WORTHY PATH

BREAD

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. 10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.    2 Peter 1:3-11 (NIV)

9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.   Colossians 1:9-12 (NIV)

1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.   Ephesians 4:1-2 (NIV)

27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel 28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.   Philippians 1:27-28 (NIV)

11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.   1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 (NIV)

BUTTER

“Cheered by the presence of God, I will do at each moment, without anxiety, according to the strength which He shall give me, the work that His Providence assigns me.  I will leave the rest without concern; it is not my affair.  I ought to consider the duty to which I am called each day, as the work that God has given me to do, and to apply myself to it in a manner worthy of His glory, that is to say, in exactness and peace.”  Fenelon  

“It is important to understand that fruitfulness and growth are the results of focusing on Christ and desiring to honor Him.  When growth and change are our primary goals, we tend to be preoccupied with ourselves instead of with Christ.  ‘Am I growing?  Am I getting any better? Am I more like Christ today?  What am I learning?’   This inordinate preoccupation with self-improvement parallels our culture’s self-help and personal enhancement movement in many ways.  Personal development is certainly not wrong, but it is misleading—and it can be very disappointing—to make it our preeminent goal.  If it is our goal at all, it should be secondary.  As we grasp the unconditional love, grace, and power of God, then honoring Christ will increasingly be our consuming passion…The only One worthy of our preoccupation is Christ, our sovereign Lord, who told Paul, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness’”.   Robert McGee

“God is God.  Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience.  I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.”   Elisabeth Elliot

“That is a very cheap sort of virtue; bullying other people’s vices. The easiest thing in all the world is to be constantly denouncing popular faults; but to wring the neck of one of my own bosom sins is a harder work by far, and a much better sign of conversion. To be earnest against the sin of others may be praiseworthy, but it is no sign of grace in the heart; for natural men have been some of the greatest leaders in this matter. To loathe my own sin, to humble myself on account of my own personal faults, and to endeavour in the sight of God to renounce every false way, is a work of something more than human nature.”   Charles H. Spurgeon

“There is to be communication of the Holy Spirit with the individual Christian in the present life, and in a sense the Holy Spirit’s communication carries with it the entire Trinity. In a sense the Spirit is the Trinity’s agent in communicating with us humans. If I am going to walk in this present life according to my high calling as a Christian, I need a strength higher than my own strength. I need the power of Christ. How is this power of Christ to be mine? It’s not enough just to imagine that I have this power. It’s not even enough to take the second step and reckon myself dead to sin and alive to Christ. There must also be a communication of the power of Christ to me through the agency of the Holy Spirit who indwells me.” Francis Schaeffer

HEART SAVOR

·       I am to walk in a manner of the high calling of Christ through the power of the Spirit.  Apart from Him, I can do nothing good.

·       God is worthy of my trust and obedience.   

·       I am to loathe my sin and my own personal fault and renounce every false way.

Stay Away From The Wandering Way Proverbs 14:12 Jeremiah 6:16 Psalms 106:43 Jeremiah 18:15-16 Isaiah 48:17-19 Psalms 84:5-7 John 14:6-7 09.18.15

STAY AWAY FROM THE WANDERING WAY

BREAD

12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.   Proverbs 14:12 (NIV)

16 This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”   Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)

43 Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin.   Psalms 106:43 (NIV)

15 Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to worthless idols, which made them stumble in their ways and in the ancient paths. They made them walk in bypaths and on roads not built up. 16 Their land will be laid waste, an object of lasting scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads.   Jeremiah 18:15-16 (NIV)

17 This is what the Lord says-- your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. 18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea. 19 Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains; their name would never be cut off nor destroyed from before me.”   Isaiah 48:17-19 (NIV)

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. 6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.   Psalms 84:5-7 (NIV)

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”   John 14:6-7 (NIV)

BUTTER

“Oh that I may be roused out of my slumber, and be watchful and ready against the coming of my Bridegroom...Even the wise virgins fell asleep.  Let this be a warning to me, O Lord.  Set thou a guard before my eyes, ears, and other faculties, lest the world again should enter through these avenues of the heart; if the spark be not speedily extinguished, it will soon break out into a flame:  thus sin is of a progressive nature, and its venom spreads very quickly and very wide, unless it be stopped and opposed in time.  Watch, therefore, over this unsteady heart of mine, O Thou Keeper of Israel; that as soon as it begins to wander from Thee, I may be alarmed to flee from sin as from a serpent.  Give me grace to look upon every hour as my last; so that being ever wisely upon my guard I may meet Thee with joy when my time is run out, whenever it shall please Thee to call me hence.”   K. H. Von Bogatzky

“We must remember that God will never drag us along the path of true-hearted discipleship. This would greatly lack the moral excellency which characterizes all the ways of God. He does not drag, but draws us along the path which leads to ineffable blessedness in Himself; and if we do see that it is for our real advantage to break through all the barriers of nature, in order to respond to Gods’ call, we forsake our own mercies. But alas! Our hearts little enter into this. We begin to calculate about the sacrifices, the hindrances, and the difficulties, instead of bounding along the path, in eagerness of soul, as knowing and loving the One whose call has sounded in our ears”.   C H Macintosh

“Thy way, not mine, O Lord, however dark it be!  Lead me by Thine own hand, choose out the path for me.”     Horatius Bonar

“O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be! Let thy goodness, like a fetter, 
bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.”  Robert Robinson

“God promises us redemption, but His sacred path leads us away from safety, predictability, and comfort.  Any attempt to fly over the dangerous terrain or make a detour to safer ground is doomed because it will not take us to God.  Instead, it leads to a host of other idols that can’t provide us with the confidence of faith, the dynamic of hope or the passion of love we so deeply crave.   Each day we either live for God or for other gods.  In each moment of hardship we fear either God or man.  When we choose to worship gods and fear men our lives will suffer an emptiness and turmoil that is not much different than trying to fill our bellies with dirt.  At first we may feel full, but in short order our violation of God’s plan will lead to torment.”    Dan Allender

HEART SAVOR

·       I am to walk in the good way and I will find rest for my soul.

·       I do not want to wander in a trackless waste.

·       Jesus is the way and the truth and the life.