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nice pose by a little beetle that i have yet to identify
[updated: scriptured leaf beetle, genus pachybrachis]
backyard capture in chesterfield
my favorite photos > www.flickr.com/photos/roderickma/sets/72157623272274082/
my photo sets > www.flickr.com/photos/roderickma/sets
I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave,[a] you are there.
If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night—
but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
[Psalm 139:7-12 NLT]
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
"To me this is like the days of Noah,
when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.
So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,
never to rebuke you again.
Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,"
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
[Isaiah 54:9-10 NIV]
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
The Bereans are a good example to follow, as sometimes, even well-meaning people may lead you astray as they themselves may have an incorrect understanding of the Scriptures. It's always a good idea to search the Scriptures for yourself.
A.I. generated image.
God’s Love and Ours
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
[1 John 4:7-21 NIV]
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
Then Hannah prayed and said:
"My heart rejoices in the Lord;
in the Lord my horn[a] is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
for I delight in your deliverance.
"There is no one holy like the Lord;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
"Do not keep talking so proudly
or let your mouth speak such arrogance,
for the Lord is a God who knows,
and by him deeds are weighed."
[1 Samuel 2:1-2 NIV]
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.
Philippians 3:10
A goal to know Him more.
–Carli
The front runner's massive lead among the party faithful has me once again despairing that conservatives just don't get it (to recycle a criticism from a past election).
A wall...?!! It's going to take more than a wall. That's not even "thinking outside the box", and what it's really going to take is some thinking outside the perimeter wire. Like, say, some of that there "job creation" among those of my neighbors who give my part of town the nickname "Little Saigon", who probably won't be averse to a juicy government contract to import all those punji stakes, because it's going to require 1900-some-odd miles of those plus another 1900+ of concertina wire, with machine gun positions and four-deuce mortar pits every 50 meters or so with interlocking fields of fire, God knows how many Claymores and enough command-detonated 55-gallon drums of fougasse to force us back to those of odd/even plate number days at the pumps we all recall so fondly from the Seventies, with an unbroken chain of firebases a few miles to the rear to provide artillery support. And, if he's really serious about interdicting the Ho Chi Menendez Trail, we're going to need a 50-mile-deep free fire zone where if so much as a Mexican bean jumps, we ARC LIGHT every madref-----g grid square from Matamoros to Tiajuana.
But even all that is just TOO conservative, the sort of effort that's about 15/32nds short of a half-measure, precisely the kind of meaningless gesture that we've consistently seen out of congressional conservativettes under Crybaby Boehner and, from what I've seen so far, what we can continue to expect with the guy who's waffling between the Charles Atlas and Maynard G. Krebs look. Besides, it's a plan based on our weakness rather than playing on our strength. As Patton's romp through Europe in '44-45 proved, and was reconfirmed by the Gulf War and the initial phase of the Iraq War (and proven in the negative by Vietnam and Iraqistan since 2003), if there is one thing that the United States Army absolutely excels at, it's the division-level drive-by shooting.
Therefore, fuzzy-thinking Liberal that I've become, I propose a much more expansive Big Government Spending Program to SOLVE the problem. Namely, have everybody at Hood, Bliss, Riley and Carson mount up, head out the main gate and DRIVE SOUTH! I figure by the time 1st Cav and 1st Armored are holding at PHASE LINE AY CHIHUAHUA! six klicks south of Mexico City waiting for 1st and 4th ID to finish mopping up, security along el viejo Rio Grande will have become pretty much a non-issue.
On a serious note (and I do trust that everyone realizes that I had my tongue planted firmly in my cheek in writing the foregoing; well, except for the part about invading Mexico, of course--you can take the boy out of Texas, but you can't take the Texas out of the boy), what really worries me about the lunatic wing of the party's adoration of The Donald is that I don't trust him, and am just astounded that so many of them have been fooled into doing so.
To begin with, he IS a Republican, which means he talks a good fight but once he wins the election, taking the oath of office will be the only real accomplishment of his entire administration. If voting for those lying, double-dealing, two-faced, back-stabbing bastards for forty-plus years has taught me anything, it's that Richard Nixon was not only the first of them I ever voted for, he's still the best of them. And even he wimped out in the end. As the saying goes, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and Republicans only have one: roll over and play dead.
More importantly, I believe the most serious problem confronting the United States today is our shrinking middle class and their even-more-rapidly-shrinking real income. There is a reason "bourgeois" is the F-bomb equivalent in commie lexicon, and why so much commie agit-prop hammers at and attempts to discredit, destabilize, demoralize and destroy the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie, the middle class, are the backbone of the civilized world, and no Christian democracy can survive without them. They are most certainly what The Greatest Generation, who won WW II and then came home to make America the world power and Middle Class Heaven on Earth it was in the twenty years after, were. They're dying out, the number of their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren who have remained in their socioeconomic strata are becoming fewer and fewer every year, and those who remain find ourselves paying higher and higher prices to stay there, while working longer and longer hours at jobs that provide less and less real income to pay for the privilege. We have hit the point where we in the middle can no longer do a proper job of taking care of the poor, and certainly can't enjoy the dubious luxury of tolerating an increasingly self-indulgent wealthy class--especially an increasingly self-centered and unpatriotic CEO class. And I don't see The Donald as the man to do anything about it, unless it's everything in his power to make the situation even worse. As his supporters like to point out, he's a successful businessman. They are 100% right, of course, but they seem incapable of grasping the obvious, that that's precisely 100% the danger: he IS a successful businessman, and no successful businessman ever became a billionaire by giving a fat rat's ass about the working class, or failing to screw 'em over any way he could, every chance he got.
It's not that I don't understand his appeal to the party base. It's obviously symptomatic of our growing frustration with the unrelenting failure of the GOP to represent us in a meaningful way, to whine and bleat and blather incessantly about the problems but never, ever get them solved like we elected them to do, and in comparison to the others he does SEEM to be saying what needs to be said. I mean, after all those years hearing all that phony sincerity about "my respected colleague, my closest friend and esteemed opponent" being jabber-babbled on the debate stage, it IS kind of refreshing to hear The Donald make it plain that Carly Fiorina is so damned ugly he wouldn't do her with Jeb Bush's erectile dysfunction, nor would he piss up the rest of 'em's asses even if the sorry bastards' guts were on fire. But...if you listen between the lines, it's just the same old Crapola - Breakfast of Losers with a new picture on the box. Just like all the others, he's got his favorite Scripture passage, as if he wasn't a business man whose god is The Almighty Dollar and he worships no other (or as if you didn't have a better chance of finding a Christian child pornographer than a Christian politician), and, yes--rah-rah-rah it's a grand old flag!--him and his third or fourth or seventeenth or whichever mail order Bolshevik babushka he's on now love America with all their Red, White and Blue hearts. It's not a wall, it's a smokescreen, the same old hypocritical Bible Thumping and Flag Waving and Fear Mongering to keep us from seeing that we're getting the business as usual, and the only difference between him and the other betrayers is that he managed to finagle considerably more than thirty pieces of silver for his soul.
Presidents don't create jobs, businesses create jobs, and we only need to ask ourselves a few questions about The Donald's record as a "successful businessman"--and view the answers in light of the old business law, "The boss is always right", and its corollary, "Since the boss is incapable of error, if things are screwed up it must be because the boss wants them to be screwed up"--to know just how much we can expect out of a President Trump. So, how many steel workers have good jobs at the rolling mills of Trump Steel in Pittsburgh? How many engineers, stylists and assembly line workers are on the massive payroll at that massive Trump Motors plant in Detroit? How many pilots, mechanics, dispatchers, ticket agents and what have you are pocketing fat pay envelopes for keeping all those Boeing Triple-7s flying in Trump Airways International's scheduled service? How many engineers and machinists and sheet metal workers are making the big bucks at Trump Aerospace? How many train crews and track gangs and yard and backshop hands does the Trump Pacific R.R. have getting a good paychecks every week and looking forward to a comfortable pension--and how many crack passenger trains do they have in service? Once upon a time in America we had industries like that, industries that made us The Arsenal of Democracy and The Envy of the World, with millions of Americans having secure, and securely middle class, jobs in them, because American--that is, REAL American--Captains of Industry wanted things that way. We don't have them anymore, we have minimum wage plus tips service jobs instead, because The Donald and all his breed of Corporate Thugs found out they could maximize their personal profits by simply selling off--and selling out--their country. And now he wants us to reward his treason by giving him the most prestigious job in the world?
Because regulations prohibit the carrying of weapons in polling places, I may have to turn a one-off incident into a Family Tradition this time around. My great grandmother voted in every single election she could vote in from the time women got the vote until she died in the 1970s, except for one. In 1960, being a good Baptist she couldn't bring herself to vote for that papist Kennedy, but, being an Eleanor Roosevelt clone right down to the klunky toes of her sensible shoes, she sure as hell couldn't vote for "that snake in the grass Republican Nixon". I now have a much more sympathetic appreciation of her predicament. I sure as hell can't vote for that snake in the grass Republican Trump, and thanks to those aforementioned weapons laws, I can't hold a gun to my head and force myself to vote for Hillary.
On an artistic and historical note, those of you familiar with military history, and with the life of George S. Patton, Jr., in particular, may have looked at the helmet of our LUCKY (REEEEEEALLY) FORWARD heroine here and thought that, ever the stickler for uniform regulations, Patton wouldn't have tolerated a brigadier general (or a major general or a lieutenant general, for that matter) running around with the chin strap unhooked like that. But in this case he couldn't have said anything, because, if you'll look again, she's NOT a brigadier general. Altogether, she's wearing as many stars as Georgie had (although one of them IS a bit smaller, due to the limited room for maneuver in the area of operations, so to speak). Whatever his misgivings about her chin strap might have been, however, I'm pretty sure Old Blood'n'Guts would have looked favorably upon the kind of kick-ass pole dancing moves she could make in her spit-shined M1940 3-buckle cavalry boots!
{ Gratitude Day 16 : God }
When I was 17, I found God. I was depressed and had no where to turn, but I was brought to God's Word... which saved me from myself. I am forever THANKFUL for something that is beyond my understanding. Without Him I am nothing.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. ~Philippians 4:13
Question: For fellow travelers, far and near, are you like a WATER WELL of faith, hope and charity on each's mutually separate Journey of Life on long path, lite or unlighted?
______________________________
John 4:5-42 or 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42
A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture by Msgr. Paul Whitmore
| email: pwhitmore29@)yahoo.com :
Have you ever noticed how many people around you are carrying a bottle of water?
We cannot go for more than a couple of hours without satisfying our thirst. In fact, we would die in a matter of days if we couldn't quench that need. In the first reading today, the Jewish people were desperate for water. Then God gave them water from the rock.
Like the woman at the well in today's Gospel, we try every kind of water under the sun to satisfy our thirst. Later in life, we recognize that it's far more than physical thirst—it's thirst for happiness, satisfaction, peace of mind. Sometimes we "get it right," but often we look for the wrong kind of water, and we look for it in the wrong places. We often spend all kinds of money and waste a lot of time, looking for something to quench our thirsts.
Jesus offers us the spiritual water that really satisfies. He is offering us what He offered the Samaritan woman—water far superior to anything she had ever tasted or ever dreamed of. Certainly her five husbands (plus her newest lover) hadn't brought her what she was really looking for. We know that she had tried cheap love, and we presume she was no stranger to intoxication, power, and money! This isn't a gentle lady who comes to draw water from the well, but a toughened cynic. No wonder she is rude to this travel-dusty Jew, whom she is sure will avoid her with downcast eyes. Jews despised Samaritans who worshipped in the wrong church. But Jesus doesn't follow the accepted prejudice!
What a surprise, when Jesus, tired, hungry and thirsty, asks her for a drink of water. He breaks all the rules in speaking to her. Now, He keeps on talking, ignoring her hostility, aware that, in this unexpected encounter, the Father has provided Him with an opportunity for piercing the heart of this sinful woman with His love. Jesus forgets His own needs, and offers this woman living water, spiritual grace. Incredible! Even when He confronts her with her sins, she shows humility. When Jesus reveals to her that He is the Messiah, she drops her bucket and runs back to spread the good news. "I've found the Messiah!" And she had!
Lent is a time for us to let Jesus satisfy our thirst. Like the Samaritan woman, we find real joy and satisfaction in letting the Lord fill us with the grace of the season. Like her, we find that our joy is greatest when we share that gift with others—joining in a study or prayer-group, in visiting a nursing home, in being patient with our family members, and really listening to them, in praying from the heart in a quiet place, in reflecting on the Word privately or at daily Mass, and letting the Eucharist change us into the Body of Christ.
The Samaritan woman never did give Jesus a drink of water as He had requested. Do we stop to realize that Jesus' thirst for our love is even greater than our thirst for His love? I guess only saints understand that. It's what gives them the energy to pour themselves out in ministry up to their last breath.
Next Sunday, Lent will be half over. A question: "Are you satisfied with what you have done so far to let Jesus into your life?" Check out your prayer, your penance, your almsgiving. What are you planning for the remainder of Lent? It's all about quenching your thirst for life—to shun the type of thirst-quencher that doesn't really satisfy, and to earnestly beg Jesus to give you His living water.
EXPLORE # 216 on Monday, February 25, 2008
Oh Lord God of Israel, who dwells between the cherubims, You are the God, even You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made heaven and earth. Lord, bow down Your ear, and hear: open, Lord, Your eyes, and see.
II Kings 19:15-16a
–Carli
"May my message drop like rain, my speech distill as dew, like mists on the green growth, like showers upon the grass; for I proclaim who the Eternal is..."
Deuteronomy 32: 2 (Moffatt)
This scripture was painted on the hardwood floor at North Shore Primitives in Washington Courthouse, OH.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.
[Hebrews 13:8-9 NLT]
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower;
the righteous run to it and are safe.
The wealth of the rich is their fortified city;
they imagine it a wall too high to scale.
[Proverbs 18:10-11 NIV]
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
Romans 8 English Standard Version (ESV)
Life in the Spirit
8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.[a] 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you[b] free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,[c] he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus[d] from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Heirs with Christ
12 So then, brothers,[e] we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons[f] of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Future Glory
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because[g] the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[h] for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
God's Everlasting Love
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be[i] against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.[j] 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Dear friend, here are 5 things you should know:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
Sincerely,
Someone who cares about you