A Short Thought- "And God Said '...' "

A Thought on, "And God Said, '.... ' ."
                                       

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Genesis 1:3  And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

<< Genesis 1:2Genesis 1:3Genesis 1:4 >>

This message is not to debate or argue for Genesis 1 or Creationism.  It is simply a statement on How Big God is.

It is interesting, Good Science, Excellent Science says the universe is 13.5 billion years old. The Bible covers about 6000 years. Now, in this message I will not argue either, because, 

I think God is so intelligent, so creative,

that He could have created the Universe, the whole universe in six days just as Genesis says, 6000 years ago and made it look like 13.5 billion years just to makes us humans gaze, geek, gawk, seek, and discover in awe of what He can do with His creative words as in "let there be light".

Even the best science of Big Bang Creationism testifies to the first element of creation, in the first three seconds of the 'Big Bang', there was visible light. And, that testifies to the Divine Inspiration of Genesis 1. Now most of us here reading this, believe that the Bible is Divinely Inspired, I just find it interesting that Creation Science testifies to what we believe.

God is so far beyond amazing everyday that I wonder why people think He is amazing. He loves us and what He does for us is out of that love and it happens every single day! God truly is so incredibly Reliable!  It is just what He does and He is not in trying to be amazing to us, because it is all done out of His love for us.

Why is it people are so self-centered they deny God and fail to see the Love everyday He has for us.  Everything is in its place, defined by God's Laws of Physics, and everything stays in its place each and every day.  All this science exists because God Loves us, wants us in Relationship with Him, yet people still deny Him.  How is it they deny yet love their life, the very life God gave them.  What is truly amazing is God's patience with us.  In His love for us, He continually waits for us to desire our Close Personal Relationship with Him, HE blesses us, and pours out His grace on us.

The Word of God is so Powerful just as is His Love and Patience.

Thanks be to God

© lonnie coggins

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The conditions under which the Earth survives its existence is truly amazing.  We live in what "Creation Science" calls the "Goldilocks Zone".  The earth is not too hot, not to cold, gets just the right about of sunlight, just the right seasons for growing food, and many other conditions that are "just right" to keep  us alive.  The Gospels teach that God wants a Personal relationship with us.  It is amazing to consider that our Earthly conditions of our physical existence tells us the same.  Click the link below for a short thought on this and share as you are lead to do so.
http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-short-thought-and-god-said.html

lonnie

Publication  0197

Finding Our Confidence

Finding Our Confidence in Trusting God
                                       

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There is great danger in our daily living as too often we live day to day trusting in our ways of existing, depending on the confidence found in our desires, and ignoring the help God Desires to provide in leading us to a greater relationship with Him.  Our greatest failure is ignoring God and His help and in that, we fail to build our Trust in Him.  But, Believing In Jesus we receive God's Gift of Faith and develop Trust that leads us beyond existing to growing in His Grace, learning to Trust, to Praise, and Love Him in our Triumphful living (*7).

Our faith is God's gift to us (Eph 3:8 & Rom 12:3 (*1)), Jesus bears witness to this faith in His example for us, and in our acceptance of Jesus as Savior, we also receive the Holy Spirit that provides and guides us to the Trust that Jesus commands (John 14:1 (*2)).  The Greek word of the New Testament for faith is translated as a noun, a thing, a most special thing but still a thing.  This Thing called Faith is a most personal present from God.  In His unearned Grace of giving us Faith, we can do nothing to earn it, deserve it, or in any way be worthy of it.  And, that is just the way God desires it and in that, we can make no claim on having done anything to receive it.

However, Trust is different.  Trust is an active imperative command of Jesus that we are to do!  In Trust, we come to the point of maintaining belief beyond the evidence (*5).  Saint John, a most close disciple and apostle of Jesus tells us in chapter 14 that Jesus commands us, "Let not your hearts be troubled, Trust God..." (*2).

Just as in our behaviors with friends and in their behaviors toward us, we learn to depend on friends building confidence our friends are dependable.  In our own lives in our behaviors and experiences with God the same activity, confidence and trust occurs as it develops!

Just as we choose friends to trust, in trusting God we learn He is truly trustworthy beyond our expectation, knowledge, and understanding.    But, even as we come to know God IS trustworthy, we must learn to rely on that trust to build our confidence in Him.  Again, Trust is an action verb we must do!  In doing this, we begin with three things to build trust.

First:  Trust in God begins with prayerful communications with Him on a daily basis and Jesus is the example for us in this activity.  He prayed often and alone.  God wants a relationship with us simply because He made us out of love (*6).  With our prayers we thank him for His grace, talk about our needs, and most of all listen and watch for His response.  Listening is most important.  God gave us two ears and one mouth possibly indicating we are to listen in stereo far more than we talk and He gave us two eyes to observe with vision to understand far more than just what we see.  We can pray about our wants but we cannnot hang our trust on God providing all our wants.  Praying for discernment in knowing the difference between needs and wants is important too.

Next:  We need to Read, Reflect, and React to God's Holy Scripture.  The Truth we find in scripture is God's word that people have Trusted for over 3500 years.  It is not situational ethics or something to ponder, but the very essence of how to live life in a loving relationship with Him!

Third and final part of this message:  Prayer and Bible Study should be a daily event both in the privacy of aloneness and in the company of other believers.   Prayer, and especially prayer, should be often in our daily thoughts.  In communications with God we build our trusting confidence in God with our daily experiences in seeing what He does for us in the little things of life (*3).  In that trusting God in the little things in life, we learn and it prepares us to Trust in the more important troublesome events of life that truly tend to test our faith.

With having great confidence in God in the Trust we build, we may not always be happy with our circumstances but with the Trust we have built in our daily living we come to be thankful regardless of our circumstances (1Thes 5:16-18 (*4) see note).  From being thankful regardless of our circumstances we can feel Joy in recognizing God's grace regardless of the surroundings we live in.  When we recognize His grace regardless of circumstances, we are sustained to have a triumphal end to the valleys of life that could easily overwhelm us.

From the movie "The Book of Eli", Denzel Washington's character tells a friend, "There is no Testimony without a Test."  This is great and Godly wisdom in that we are not to live life seeking to avoid all Trials and Testing.  In our Trials of Testing, seeking God's desires for us results in finding Confident Triumphal living in the paths God presents to us to achieve His Will for our lives.

Thanks be to God.

lonnie

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© Lonnie Coggins
ldcoggins@gmail.

If you desire to use any of these messages in a For-Profit manner you must contact me (email) for permission.  Typically, I will most likely give permission.

lonnie 

(*1)

Ephesians 2:

3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.8For it is by grace you have been saved,

     through faith--and 

      this not from yourselves, 

         it is the gift of God--9not by works, so that no one can boast.10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

One in Christ

11Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)--12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
Romans 12:3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
(*2)

John 14:

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.2In 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.3And 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.4You know the way to the place where I am going."

Jesus the Way to the Father

5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
(*3)  This very message came after a morning prayer.  I had been thinking and studying the Greek for the past week on the meaning of Trust in our relationship with God.  I knew I would know when it was time to write about it.  In my prayerlife, I pray for the Spirit to guide the words that I write.  That was in my morning prayer.  As soon as I said 'Amen' the words came.  I did not even go to the compter, I was filled with this message and immediately picked up my pen and paper and started writing.
(*4)1 Thessalonians 5:14And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.15Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.16Be joyful always;17pray continually;18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.19Do not put out the Spirit's fire;20do not treat prophecies with contempt.21Test everything. Hold on to the good.22Avoid every kind of evil.23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.24The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
Please note:  verse 18 does not tell us that we have to be thankful for our circumstance, but to be thanful in our circumstances.  No matter how bad our circumstances, we can find much for which to be thankful.
(*5)Trust overcomes the immediate facts of a situation allowing a person to continue to believe in spite of the facts.  When bad things happens to us and it looks like everything around us is out of control and we continue to to believe in the object of our faith, then we are trusting.  An earthly example:  We have a friend we know and have known for years.  You have never seen or have knowledge of any criminal activity and to the contrary this person you trust has always been someone you could depend on in any situation.  Then, someone breaks into your house while on vacation and only your friend you trust knew you were gone.  On top of that, the police find evidence the friend was in your house while you were gone and in fact you asked him to check on some plants.  But, fingerprints are found where they should not be.  In spite of the evidence, you still believe your friend did not fake the entry and steal valuable possessions.  This is trust inspite of the evidence.-(*6)The Essence of God
(*7)Growing in Grace: Grace at 168 Miles per Hour

The Essence of God

The Essence of God

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Luke 7: 
44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."48Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."49The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"50Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."                                       

John 8:

17In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid.18I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me."19Then they asked him, "Where is your father?" "You do not know me or my Father," Jesus replied. "If you knew me, you would know my Father also."

It is not uncommon to think and wonder about the very essence of God.  The question on peoples mind is, "What is God really like?"  The answer is not far from the question. The reality, the Truth is  Jesus gives us the answer!

In this scripture, Simon is a Pharisee who has invited Jesus into his home for a meal.  The woman in the story found in Luke is an intruder which I am told was not uncommon in the times of Jesus.  When someone famous would come into a town and visit people, interested parties would make themselves welcome to the visit.  In this case the woman just walked into the discussion and did what she did.  She obviously loved Jesus based on what she did for Jesus and desired to serve him.  Maybe, she had even seen the lack of hospitality of Simon.

What is interesting in this story is how Jesus chastised Simon for not being a better host and how the others there were no doubt amazed at Jesus forgiving the woman's sins.

As Christians we find no amazement in this.  We know Jesus forgives sins.  But, for the times of Jesus, providing the forgiveness of sins was only something God can do.  Therefore, in this passage we see Jesus clearly and rightly claiming to be God and based on the passage above from John 8, we see the essence of Jesus and therefore the essence of God.

The great teacher Jesus allows this woman, clearly a sinful woman to do what she did to teach a lesson and define an Essence of God.

The lesson here is that we must give Jesus uppermost priority in our lives.  When we accept Jesus in our lives we must do everything to make Him welcome and the number one priority in our life!  In Jesus' visit with Simon, Simon did none of the normal traditional things of the day that were mentioned by Jesus.  But the woman, a stranger to Simon's home, she did!  By her actions, she clearly loved Jesus and she wanted to serve Him!

In the woman's behavior we see her contriteness for her sins.  It does not say anything in the scripture about her sins, she must have understood that Jesus knew her sins.  From this, we see the Essence of God.  By faith and Bible study, as we know Jesus, we too know God!  In that, our relationship with Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit is established.

God wants peace in our lives that allows us to serve him better and this peace comes from knowing we are forgiven of our sins.  In our humility toward Jesus, just as the woman, we find our peace in our personal relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, but most of all we find forgiveness.  
All this, in God's Grace, 
only and 
just because 
                                         He loves us.


In Faith, In Grace, In your heart, 
Know Jesus, Know God,
confessing your sins, then 
in the forgiveness of your sins 
you can live, truly live, 
and live triumphly in the peace, joy, and
guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Love- The Very Essence of God!

Thanks be to God.

lonnie

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© Lonnie Coggins
ldcoggins@gmail.

If you desire to use any of these messages in a For-Profit manner you must contact me (email) for permission.  Typically, I will most likely give permission.

God has very well made most obvious what is essential of his desires toward us.  With this message I hope the very basic nature of God will be quite clear.  Click the link for the message.  Share on Facebook as you feel led to do so.

http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-essence-of-god.html

lonnie 

Wants and Needs Control our Lives

Wants and Needs Control our Lives  

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   Fighting for what you want
         is a sure path 
            to unhappiness. 

Living in God's grace depending on Him to supply your needs brings abundant joy to the heart that only God can so graciously provide.  Learning to discern your needs from your wants is a life long journey with the Holy Spirit guiding your path.  WANTS are circumstancial in the everyday environment we find ourselves;  they change with the wind, grow with being met, and ultimately lead to self-distruction when you live life depending on your selfish self-confidence.   Persistent pursuit of our wants only leads to a life in chaos, but God's joy in our hearts brings peace to our lives.  

Pray for your needs to be met, it's ok to be specific, but end your prayers as Jesus did, "Not my will, but yours be done."

To have the Holy Spirit in your heart,
 "pray and pray and pray.... everyday".....
                                                especially for others.

Matthew 16:25 NIV [Jesus Speaking]

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Thanks be to God

lonnie

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Publication 136

Giving up vs. Perseverance

Perseverance and                                                
Giving up....  the Right Thing.

                                      

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Luke 23:46 NKJ  And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, 'into Your hands I commit My spirit.' " Having said this, He breathed His last.

It is hard to imagine where we would be if Jesus had not given up!  He gave up all selfishness, all self-centeredness, and self desire to control His life.  He lived to please God in the face of all His concerns for His ministry, He gave up any self-will and lived in God's will.  This is counter to our desire to control our life.  We go beyond concern for our lives and far too often live in worry, when all we should do is give up the worry to God, seek His will for our lives, and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in that Will.  Jesus is the perfect example of giving up personal will and doing the Father's will.  

Here is a personal story on the beginning my journey of worry and giving up.

Too long ago when I was thirteen, I took a lifesaving course (water lifesaving) that would be three hours each night for thirteen consecutive weekdays.  I was the youngest, scrawniest one in the the group of about twenty amazon like teenagers.  Most of them were there to get their YMCA (Y) lifesaving course to be hunks at the beach.

I quit after the second night, or I tried.  Upon leaving school that third day, instead of walking to the Y, I started walking home.  Well, my daddy just happened by driving to town and picked me up.  He had a conversation about quitting..... while he was driving to the Y.  He ushered me out of the car and told me, “You go in there everyday until the instructor kicks you out.”

I did what my father said.  Eleven days later was graduation.  After graduation, one of the amazon swimmers came to me and said, “You know everyone in the class was pulling for you for we could see you struggle through the requirements, but we learned, pound for pound, you are the strongest swimmer in here.”  My dad taught me a life-long lesson in just five minutes and that amazonian encouragement stays with me even today.

The important lesson to see here is that in perseverance of a goal, I did give up.... the right thing.  I did not give up my task, but I gave up the worry of achieving the task.  I went back to class believing what my daddy said about staying until kicked out, and gave up the worry of achieving the goal but working harder.  It is most important to have a teachable heart even if it takes a kick in the pants to learn.

To this day, my perseverance continues, giving up right thing, and working hard to achieve the best life and God has to offer.  I seek to leave to God the worry for things I cannot control and “just keep on keeping on”.  All of us have to give up our worry at some point as we find ourselves in a wilderness, searching for and achieving our goals.  We must remain concerned and work to achieve our goals, but worry is just a heavy, useless distraction.  As we backslide on this worry issue, we have to remember how much better it is to return to God; we must ditch the worry, be concerned- yes, and in our concern, we do what we can do within His will to better our conditions, but leave the worry to God in submission to His will.

As Jesus did in the wilderness after his baptism, He was lead to the desert to determine His path and behaviors to conduct His Ministry.  He then pursued His goals relentlessly.  He knew His mission, but, in the face of all adversity He used His Resources Wisely.  He knew and used scripture to defend Himself against the evil one but He did give up... yes, he did give up the right thing, His Worry.  He had a plan- to do the Father's will, then He worked the plan, and let His Father take care of the consequences.

Jesus remained concerned about His mission but gave up His worry to God, knowing that He would complete His mission through God’s help.  He set the perfect example and we must do the same.  When we pray for God’s hold on our lives in the midst of our greatest concerns and distractions, we become even more authentic Christians and closer in the Spirit.  This allows God’s light to shine through us and be a beacon to those around us.  Just as Jesus did, in the worst of our adversities we must pray for God’s will in our lives... and give up the worry.

The scripture above shows us in Jesus’ last words from Luke were about giving up.  He held on to God for his last breath and then gave up His Spirit to God.  May we too do the same, hold on to God, KNOW Him and hand him our spirit in our last breath.

Choose your goals wisely and never give up to God the goal but leave the worry to God through seeking and living in His will.

There are consequences when we give our worry to God, an empty spot fills our thinking .  When we give up the worry, when we seek and live in His will, when we pray daily for God to live in us, the Holy Spirit rushes in.  Give up your worry, then allow Him and the closeness of the Holy Spirit rule your life and lead you to greater achievements in His name. 

Thanks be to God, 

     He does have a plan for you (Jeremiah 29:11).  It will define your life.

(c) Lonnie Coggins

Please Join 'A Daily Thought Group' on Facebook.  
It is designed to be an uncluttered library of only ‘A Daily Thought’ postings.  

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You can print the message including this sharing message only for your friends and for non-profit.  You will have to copy and paste the message to a word processing document.   After you copy and paste add the following at the end of the message:

© Lonnie Coggins
ldcoggins@gmail.com

If you desire to use any of these messages in a For-Profit manner you must contact me (email) for permission.  Typically, I will most likely give permission.

Please email me if you find any broken links in this message.

lonnie

Publication  0118

Lead in:

IMAGINE JESUS IN HIS LAST WEEK BEFORE THE CROSS AND  the testing to avoid the agony of the cross. But, our Perfect Leader, Jesus shows us the way and the results of living in God's will for our lives. It may not be an easy path, but giving up our will and living in His will is the example Jesus gives us. It truly leads to the greater Glory God as for us in His Plan for us. Click and read on for more.   .... PLEASE SHARE THE MESSAGE on your Fb page as you like, and if you like, click the FB 'Follow' button to have notifications of these publications.  For other messages like this, visit my FB page, or on FB visit-"A Daily Thought Group".

http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2010/10/giving-up-vs-perseverance.html
  

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