See the world through Andy's eyes...
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Matthew 5:17-18 New International Version (NIV) The Fulfillment of the Law 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."
Psalm 130:6-8 New International Version (NIV) 6 I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. 7 Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. 8 He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.
Matthew 5:14-16 New International Version (NIV) 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Isaiah 46:8-11 New American Standard Bible (NASB) 8 “Remember this, and be [a]assured; Recall it to [b]mind, you transgressors. 9 “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; 11 Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of [c]My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.
Habakkuk 3:17-18 New International Version (NIV) 17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour "Let’s face it, sometimes it is hard to hold on to faith. We don’t so much fully embrace faith; we cling to it by our fingertips. As our text reminds us, there are times when life circumstances are such that we wonder if God is really there, or more accurately, if he is there for us. But this is when we realise that while life situations change, our God does not. We realise that faith is not knowledge. I don’t have to know what God is doing to trust him. I simply have to trust that he knows what he is doing." - David Reay
"In all our relationships, we follow the pattern of love that God has shown to us, namely to love unconditionally. This path is not an easy one. It led Jesus to the cross, and over the centuries it has led many to lay down their lives as a martyr. But there can be no compromise. It is love and love only. It is love without reading that saves." - Selwyn Hughes
Romans 4:19-20 New International Version (NIV) 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...
John 10:27-30 Good News Translation (GNT) 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never die. No one can snatch them away from me. 29 What my Father has given me is greater[a] than everything, and no one can snatch them away from the Father's care. 30 The Father and I are one.
"The God who made us gave us freedom to wander astray from him. His love for us did not curdle into control of us. Rather his love prompted him to give his son to us as the means by which we can come back home to him. He knows we go off into all sorts of dead ends and it is there he reminds us there is in fact a way out, a way home. The God who comes looking for us is no stern moralist just itching to give us a lecture about how bad we have been. He comes in love to pick us up and bring us to where we belong. He doesn’t seem to mind messy, scruffy, unkempt lost sheep on his shoulders. Our task is not to clean ourselves up but to allow ourselves to be found by him. Just as we are." - David Reay
Psalm 77:13-20 Good News Translation (GNT) 13 Everything you do, O God, is holy. No god is as great as you. 14 You are the God who works miracles; you showed your might among the nations. 15 By your power you saved your people, the descendants of Jacob and of Joseph. 16 When the waters saw you, O God, they were afraid, and the depths of the sea trembled. 17 The clouds poured down rain; thunder crashed from the sky, and lightning flashed in all directions. 18 The crash of your thunder rolled out, and flashes of lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook. 19 You walked through the waves; you crossed the deep sea, but your footprints could not be seen. 20 You led your people like a shepherd, with Moses and Aaron in charge.
2 Peter 1:3-4 Good News Translation (GNT) 3 God's divine power has given us everything we need to live a truly religious life through our knowledge of the one who called us to share in his own[a] glory and goodness. 4 In this way he has given us the very great and precious gifts he promised, so that by means of these gifts you may escape from the destructive lust that is in the world, and may come to share the divine nature.
"Being a Christian is not just about getting to heaven when we die. It is about embodying and expanding the values of heaven here and now. It is not just about life after death, it is about life before death. We are not merely passing through this world like travellers on a plane or train. We are immersed in it as it is even as we anticipate its eventual renovation." - David Reay
"Jesus loves his church and is working to present the church to himself with all its wonderful potential fulfilled. But that is yet to come. In the meantime, his much loved bride has quite a few spots and wrinkles which nevertheless don’t cause him to cease loving her. So too we don’t wait for the church to be what it should be but rather love it for what it is." - David Reay
Psalm 139:1-3 New Living Translation (NLT) 1 O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. 2 You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. 3 You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. "To be known is one of the most wonderful experiences of life" - Mick Brooks
Isaiah 64:8 English Standard Version (ESV) 8 But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Not because of who I am But because of what You've done Not because of what I've done But because of who You are - Casting Crowns (Who Am I)
Proverbs 3: 9,27 (NLT) 9 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. 27 Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it’s in your power to help them. How often do we think about only providing for ourselves and giving ourselves or our family the best part of everything we produce? Chances are, if you are reading this, you are wealthy compared to the majority of the world. If we have more than we need, we are blessed beyond measure, so shouldn't we share that blessing with those in need? And God challenges us to share beyond the leftovers.... in Proverbs 3 he says the best , not just 10%, not just what we think we can budget for, but the best. If you know you can help someone today, then do it. - R. Harriott
“Conversion is the lifelong process of turning away from our plans and turning toward God’s maddening, disruptive, creativity.” - Craig Barnes
"I confess that sometimes my prayer life is all about figuring out what I think is best and then asking God to bless my plans. 'Lord, bless this. Don't mess with it. Just bless all I've arranged.' But our plans are sometimes not the best plans. God already knows what we need before we ask Him. Not what we think we need. He knows what we really need. So, why pray? We pray because we don't truly know what is best. We pray because He sees everything while we see only a sliver of the bigger picture. We pray because we need so much more than quick fixes and help for our troubles. We pray because we need God." - Lysa Terkeurst
Hebrews 10:22-25 New Living Translation (NLT) 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
"We see the Father only in the Son. The ancient projets brought the message but the Son is the message. The gospel is His person." - Selwyn Hughes
"Realistic common sense tells us that we are too weak and too human to change for the better, whereas grace gives us power to change. Plain common sense tells us that we are caught in a rut of futility and fate, whereas grace promises that we can have a better tomorrow than the day we have made for ourselves." - Lewis Smedes
Job 11:13-18 New Living Translation (NLT) 13 “If only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands to him in prayer! 14 Get rid of your sins, and leave all iniquity behind you. 15 Then your face will brighten with innocence. You will be strong and free of fear. 16 You will forget your misery; it will be like water flowing away. 17 Your life will be brighter than the noonday. Even darkness will be as bright as morning. 18 Having hope will give you courage. You will be protected and will rest in safety.
“Love hopes all things. The love that lets people be what they are, even when we desperately want them to be different, is that sort of hopeful love. The paradox of love is that it sometimes gives a new hope only as the old hope dies.” - Lew Smedes
"The Christian life is not just carrying out certain duties and responsibilities - it is being invited into an intimate relationship." - Selwyn Hughes
Romans 3:23-24 New Living Translation (NLT) 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
Romans 8:23-25 J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS) 22-25 It is plain to anyone with eyes to see that at the present time all created life groans in a sort of universal travail. And it is plain, too, that we who have a foretaste of the Spirit are in a state of painful tension, while we wait for that redemption of our bodies which will mean that at last we have realised our full sonship in him. We were saved by this hope, but in our moments of impatience let us remember that hope always means waiting for something that we haven’t yet got. But if we hope for something we cannot see, then we must settle down to wait for it in patience.
Luke 9:57-62 New International Version (NIV) The Cost of Following Jesus 57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 59 He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” "This sort of thing is not in many evangelistic courses around the place. We put the emphasis on trying to attract people, to show how desirable it is to follow Jesus. We try to make our church gatherings ...
Isaiah 2:3 Good News Translation (GNT) 3 “Let us go up the hill of the Lord , [ a ] to the Temple of Israel's God. He will teach us what he wants us to do; we will walk in the paths he has chosen. For the Lord 's teaching comes from Jerusalem; from Zion he speaks to his people.”
Hebrews 2:16-18 New Living Translation (NLT) 16 We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the descendants of Abraham. 17 Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters,[a] so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. 18 Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.
" He seeks no second site on which to build, but on the old foundation, stone by stone, cementing sad experience with grace, fashions a stronger temple of His own." - Patricia St John
Romans 5:18-19 The Message (MSG) 18-19 Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.
Romans 12:1-2 New International Version (NIV) 12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will. "Thermostats and thermometers are entirely different instruments even though they sound much the same. A thermometer reflects the environment whereas a thermostat affects the environment. A thermometer tells you how hot or cold it is. A thermostat shapes how hot or cold it is. Followers of Jesus can be either of these instruments. We can reflect our world or affect our world. We can become captive to our surrounding culture so that we blend in. We are just like everyone else. Or we c...
"We function better physically when we are more concerned about others than we are about ourselves." - Mick Brooks
Matthew 21:1-3 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 21 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.[a]”
"Every one of our children will be brought into the ark, if we pray and work earnestly for them." - Dwight L Moody
Psalm 131 New International Version (NIV) 1 My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. 2 But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content. 3 Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.
Galatians 5:1 New International Version (NIV) - It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
"Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, the nourishment of mind with His truth, the purifying of imagination by His beauty, the opening of the heart to love, the surrender of will to His purpose - and all this is gathered up in adoration to the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable, and therefore the chief remedy for all that self-centredness, which is the original sin and the source of all actual sin." - Archbishop William Temple
"The person who goes on to know God in a deep and intimate way is the one who can affirm that God is good even though there may be a thousand appearances to the contrary. We may be very conscious that we have not yet arrived at that place of absolute trust in God. Nevertheless, we are making progress when there is a deep longing within that we might come to the place of trusting God even when we cannot trace Him." - Mick Brooks
"We are here to be worshipers first and workers only second. We take a convert and immediately make a worker out of that person. God never meant it to be so. God meant that a convert should learn to be a worshipper, and after that he or she can learn to be a worker. The work done by a worshipper will have eternity in it." - A. W. Tozer
"We are incurably egocentric. Life is all about me. It takes a radical move of the Spirit of God to shift the centre of attention from ourselves to others. It doesn’t come naturally. And it matters. If I am thoroughly self-absorbed, I will not bother about your burdens, fixated as I am on my own. Besides, if I am preoccupied with my own burdens, I won’t even know what burdens, if any, you need to have shared." - David Reay
"God waits to offer us infinite resources - for the asking and the taking. The quiet time is where the soul grows receptive, where prayer becomes a place of healing - an oasis of peace, where the touch of His presence becomes as real and dramatic as the touch of the woman on the hem of Jesus' garment, where peace flows into our turbulence, where love resolves our resentments, where joy heals our griefs, and where we enter into the process of being known. The quiet time shuts us in with God, the door closes upon us, and then infinite resources flood into our soul. The door opens and we move out, with an increased awareness of God, ready to face a world that knows so little about Him." - Mick Brooks
"God has plans for our future. Dwelling on the past prevents us from seeing what God is doing in the present. Prevents us from reflecting in hope on what he is going to do in the future. Our past records are inevitably a mixture of right and wrong, good and bad. Bring what is obviously wrong to Jesus. As to the other choices we have made, trust that God has woven them into his good purposes for us. We cannot change the past, but we can change how we look at it and so change the way we look at our present and our future." - David Reay
Revelation 2:1-7 Good News Translation (GNT) The Message to Ephesus 2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: “This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven gold lampstands. 2 I know what you have done; I know how hard you have worked and how patient you have been. I know that you cannot tolerate evil people and that you have tested those who say they are apostles but are not, and have found out that they are liars. 3 You are patient, you have suffered for my sake, and you have not given up. 4 But this is what I have against you: you do not love me now as you did at first. 5 Think how far you have fallen! Turn from your sins and do what you did at first. If you don't turn from your sins, I will come to you and take your lampstand from its place. 6 But this is what you have in your favor: you hate what the Nicolaitans do, as much as I do. 7 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the ch...
Proverbs 1:5 New International Version (NIV) 5 Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance.
2 Peter 3:8-9 Good News Translation (GNT) 8 But do not forget one thing, my dear friends! There is no difference in the Lord's sight between one day and a thousand years; to him the two are the same. 9 The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead, he is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.