Message In A Bottle

Discussion in 'Faith & Religion' started by Joe Riley, Nov 12, 2015.

  1. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    Today's devotional from The Upper Room, is titled Daily Walk With Christ, by José Laguna Lemus (Atlántico, Colombia). The Scripture reading is Psalm 4:1-9, from The Message Bible:

    Your Life Is at Stake

    Psalm 4 1-2 Listen, friends, to some fatherly advice;
    sit up and take notice so you’ll know how to live.
    I’m giving you good counsel;
    don’t let it go in one ear and out the other.

    3-9 When I was a boy at my father’s knee,
    the pride and joy of my mother,
    He would sit me down and drill me:
    “Take this to heart. Do what I tell you—live!
    Sell everything and buy Wisdom! Forage for Understanding!
    Don’t forget one word! Don’t deviate an inch!
    Never walk away from Wisdom—she guards your life;
    love her—she keeps her eye on you.
    Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom!
    Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding!
    Throw your arms around her—believe me, you won’t regret it;
    never let her go—she’ll make your life glorious.
    She’ll garland your life with grace,
    she’ll festoon your days with beauty.”

    TODAY'S PRAYER
    Forgiving God, we count on your unfailing strength to help us overcome the stumbling blocks in our faith journey. Uphold us when we falter, and pick us up when we fall. Amen.
     
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  2. Al Amoling

    Al Amoling Veteran Member
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    I think that's Proverbs 4
     
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  3. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    @Al Amoling Thanks Al, you are correct. (READ PROVERBS 4:1-9) I must of fell off the ladder, while cutting and pasting! Just take it with a grain of Psalms.;)
     
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  4. Al Amoling

    Al Amoling Veteran Member
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    No problem....When I saw "wisdom" I thought that can't be Psalms because I could't remember reading about wisdom in Psalms.
     
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  5. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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  6. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    The “wisdom Psalms” are: 1, 14, 25, 34, 37, 39, 49, 73, 78, 90, 91, 111, 112, 127, 128, 131, and 139.

    Sorry it took so long to get back to you on that Al.
     
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  7. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    Today's Upper Room Devotional is titled "A Snake, A Bible, And Me" written by Melissa Ferguson (Tennessee).
    The scripture is Lamintations 3:22-26, and is from The Message Bible:

    22 God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up.
    23 They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!
    24 I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left.
    25 God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks.
    26 It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God.

    Prayer: Dear God, thank you for meeting us today and every day. We need you more than the bread we eat and the air we breathe. Amen.
     
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  8. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    The Upper Room devotional for today, 08/02/19, is titled "An Hour Well Spent". written by Andrea Woronick (Connecticut, USA). The scripture is Isaiah 46:3-9, taken from The Message Bible.

    Isaiah 46:3-9
    3 "Listen to me, family of Jacob, everyone that's left of the family of Israel. I've been carrying you on my back from the day you were born,

    4 And I'll keep on carrying you when you're old. I'll be there, bearing you when you're old and gray. I've done it and will keep on doing it, carrying you on my back, saving you.

    5 "So to whom will you compare me, the Incomparable? Can you picture me without reducing me?

    6 People with a lot of money hire craftsmen to make them gods. The artisan delivers the god, and they kneel and worship it!

    7 They carry it around in holy parades, then take it home and put it on a shelf. And there it sits, day in and day out, a dependable god, always right where you put it. Say anything you want to it, it never talks back. Of course, it never does anything either!

    8 "Think about this. Wrap your minds around it. This is serious business, rebels. Take it to heart.

    9 Remember your history, your long and rich history. I am God, the only God you've had or ever will have - incomparable, irreplaceable -

    Today's Prayer
    O God, help us to remember to set apart time each day to spend with you in prayer. Amen.
     
    #113
  9. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    Today's devotional, from the Upper Room, is titled: Keep Sowing Seeds, written by Linda Chandra (Banten, Indonesia). The scripture is I Thessalonians 1:1-10, and is from The Message Bible.

    1 Thessalonians 1-10

    1 I, Paul, together here with Silas and Timothy, send greetings to the church at Thessalonica, Christians assembled by God the Father and by the Master, Jesus Christ. God’s amazing grace be with you! God’s robust peace!

    Convictions of Steel
    2-5 Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you’re in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.


    5-6 You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!—taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble.


    7-10 Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you? The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore—you’re the message! People come up and tell us how you received us with open arms, how you deserted the dead idols of your old life so you could embrace and serve God, the true God. They marvel at how expectantly you await the arrival of his Son, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescued us from certain doom.

    Today's Prayer
    Dear God, help us to offer sincere and loving kindness to the people we meet today. Amen.
     
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  10. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    "There are higher levels of living to which we have never attained. There is peace, satisfaction, and joy that we have never experienced. God is trying to break through to us. The heavens are calling. God is speaking! Let man hear" - Billy Graham

    “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” -John 10:10
     
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  11. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    The Upper Room Devotional for today is titled Trust. It is written by Lidiya Petrova (Varna, Bulgaria).

    "One day last Summer, I decided to go swimming. It was a windy day with few people on the beach - only some surfers taking pleasure on the waves. I admired their skill and bravery. When one of the surf boards came closer to me, I was amazed to see a young boy sitting on it, holding his father's legs. He did not seem afraid; he smiled and looked quite happy. I was impressed by the young boy's trust in his father. He was calm floating on the waves because his father was close to him."

    "In the sea of life, we can be calm and even take pleasure when we keep hold of our heavenly Father. Jesus tells us to have faith like a child. Whether we are happy or in tears, God loves us, and we can trust that God will calm our fears and keep hold of us always."

    The scripture is Psalm 36:5-7, and is taken from The Message Bible:

    5 God's love is meteoric, his loyalty astronomic,

    6 His purpose titanic, his verdicts oceanic. Yet in his largeness nothing gets lost; Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks.


    7 How exquisite your love, O God! How eager we are to run under your wings,

    Prayer:
    Heavenly father, thank you for being with us in every moment of our lives. Help us to focus not on our fears, but on you.
    Amen
     
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  12. Bess Barber

    Bess Barber Veteran Member
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    I collect Bibles also!! I've never heard of The Rhyming Bible. I have heard the New Testament was originally written in a limerick style so it was easier for people to memorize and not make mistakes. I'm not sure about it though. I like the Jewish translation of the New Testament as well. This year I think I'm going to buy myself a Torah scroll for Christmas.
     
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  13. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    During the year 2020, we have been having our evening devotions, after Supper, reading from a book our Daughter got us last Christmas. It is called "Hold on to Hope", with daily devotionals written by Pastor Jimi le Roux. We are not using the Message Bible as we have been. The verses from today's devotional are from the Contemporary English Version (CEV).


    BE A BELOVED

    "Without the help of the Lord it is useless to build a home or guard a city. It is useless to get up early and stay up late in order to earn a living. God takes care of His own, even while they sleep". Psalm 127:1-2

    The Psalmist assures us that it's useless to build if God is not building with us, that it's vain to guard that which God isn't guarding as well. To get up early for work or to work your fingers to the bone if of no benefit at all if the Lord's blessing isn't in the matter.

    God can just as well give success to His beloved while they're sleeping. Our first goal, therefore, should not be to work hard but to be God's beloved! That's the first requirement for success! How do we become God's beloved? Well, the Bible says that God already loves us - that we're already the objects of His love. Being a beloved, however, is not a one-sided or passive affair. A beloved is in a two-sided relationship of love: receiving love, but also giving love. God's beloved reacts to God's love by loving God back!

    Remember His Great Commandment, that we love Him with our whole heart, soul and mind? Be a true beloved of God, then, by acting like a true beloved. Nurture and grow the love between you and God, and you will see wonderful things happen!


    Lord, thank you for your love. Help me to show my love for you as well! Amen.
     
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  14. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    Message in a pumpkin!
    [​IMG]
     
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  15. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Indeed, Give Thanks.
    Thank you Father for not only the blessings and miracles I have witnessed, but those extra blessings, those extra miracles that I have not seen. Without Your hand on my wife and I during the most trying of times, things would have been vastly different.
     
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