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Sunday, October 27, 2013

Giving Thanks in All Circumstances, Part 2

Give Thanks in                                   
All Circumstances?   Part 2
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 Please read Part 1 before you read this part.
1 Thessalonians 5:
17  Pray continually
18  give thanks in all circumstances,       
      for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.




Thankfulness in all Circumstances?

For the longest time after realizing these words from Paul, I had a difficult time with "give thanks in all circumstances...".  He even says it is the will of God we do so.  You may be having similar thoughts I had as you have just read these words.  "How can this be?" "How could I give thanks when I saw my sons' foot after a lawnmower blade damaged and mangled it so badly?"  "How could I be thankful about losing friends in Vietnam?"

A great part of reading a scripture passage over and over and over is learning to understand what a passage says, and very importantly, what it does not really mean. 

The passage "be thankful in all circumstances...."
does NOT say that
we should be thankful for the circumstances,
it says
be thankful "in" our circumstances.


To understand scripture, sometimes Reading and Rereading many times a difficult Bible passage is one of the greatest of lessons I have learned concerning Bible study.  Only then, if necessary, consult a commentary. Then, pray for greater understanding and more wonderful lessons do come out of the passage.  In doing this, it is totally understandable that Jesus and Paul wants us to be thankful in all situations we find ourselves.  Why?  It is good for us!  It keeps us sane!

Being thankful and living in constant thankfulness is so very good for us for it helps us survive our circumstances, especially our difficult circumstances.  Often thankfulness comes most rapidly through prayer. 

 I have a good friend in the Philippines, a school teacher.  She was kidnapped out of her classroom, taken far away from her home, and in the next weeks ransomed and brain washed to convert to another faith.  In times private with her kidnapped co-worker they remembered Bible verses, quietly sang songs with the other, prayed, and truly sought God's Kingdom for their lives.  She was not thankful for the situation she was in, but she learned to give thanks in the circumstance for the God that provided her comfort, love, and care during those days.  She was released with no ransom paid after her captivity of exactly 40 days!  She lived this verse 18.  But, more than that, to her credit and to God's Glory, she survived through feeling His comfort, care and love.

It was to her good that she and her co-worker followed what Jesus desires of us.  God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit do not require anything of us where, through Them, we will fail to feel Their comfort.  Everything God requires of us is good for us, and everything good for us is God's blessings. 

Finally, in accepting the Bible as the inspired word of God means we do not ignore passages we do not understand but seek to find God's will in them.   In time, in rereading scripture, prayer, and with patience the meaning will come.  And in that attitude with this passage, we come to understand that we can be thankful in all circumstances but we just do not have to be thankful for the circumstances.

Having the feeling of thankfulness in all circumstances is exceptionally good for us.  Pray daily for this and come to understand this scripture in our ordinary little things of life so that during the hard times, we can better see the blessing of joy we can have and the thankfulness we can feel in all the times of our life.


Thanks be to God

lonnie(c)
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    Publication 0182

    It is hard th think about being thankful in our circumstance.  But, It is good advice when we truly understand what it means to do so.  Click the link for more on this.

    http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2013/01/giving-thanks-in-return-to-main-menu.html


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    Thursday, October 17, 2013

    Great Commands of Jesus, "Do Not Be Afraid"


    Great Commands of the Bible, 
    "Do not be Afraid"
                                       
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    There are many words of Command in the Bible, 

    Commands from God, 

    Commands from Jesus,

     Commands of the Disciples, 

    and the Commands of Paul.



    The Command of  "Do Not be afraid."

    God's Covenant With Abram


    1After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."
    At night, a child goes to mother, "I am afraid, can I stay with you?" Someone loses a job and wonders how they will survive; or a young lieutenant navigator arrives in Saigon, S-Vietnam petrified, scared of dying, and filled in fear knowing that the next day's battle is most dangerous.  From the earliest times in the Bible, from Abram (Abraham), Moses, Joshua, to the disciples, they were often afraid.
    Just as with those mentioned, we all can have one emotion in common, that emotion is FEAR.  For good reasons, we are born with it.  Medical science explains that fear forms in the amygdale, an almond-shaped mass of gray matter of the brain and scientist have found a gene that produces a protein, 'stathmin' that is a stimulant of fear and anxiety.  Fear and being afraid is good for us as it heightens our awareness of our surroundings but how we learn to deal with it determines our success in our surviving life.  We learn to control our response or in our panic, we can become useless, or worse, dead.  The fearful circumstances will remain, but the panic of being afraid does not have to control us.  Learning to shed panic in times of our senses hightened by natural fear is a learned response.  In learning to shed panic, we learn to actively respond without being afraid.  In our God-given Faith, we learn to shed panic more quickly and to respond quickly and our response then is to His Glory.
    Millions of words have been written about dealing with our common enemy- fear and being afraid.   Jesus had a few words that can help us, probably more than most of the millions by mankind.
    Jesus in one word had two important commands that help control our panic, lighten our fear, and ideally eliminate all of it.  Two words that are the enemy of our faith in God.
    In facing fear, faith is the foundation of our response.  Either we have clear minded courage and respond in Godly Faith OR we depend on ourselves, our government or what ever, AND in doing so, shrink, become dependent, withdraw, run in our fears, live in mistrust, sink into anxiety, develop cowardice in our behaviors, and-or follow evil ways of trying to survive.  Without God, we are in rebellion against God.  In choosing a Godly Faith through Jesus Christ,     Living in Faith is our Righteous Relationship with God.

    We live and can do no better than Trusting God with our lives.  It began with Abraham.
    Beginning with Abraham (Abram) in Old Testament (OT) God admonished His chosen leaders "do not be afraid."  It began with Abraham when he was fearful of not delivering a baby to God through his wife.  In Genesis 15:

    God's Covenant With Abram

    1After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."2But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?"3And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."4Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir."5He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."6Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
    135 times in the Old Testament, God communicates with the Hebrews/Israel 135 times either directly or through His prophets, "Do not be afraid".  In all this for the Hebrews, living life is not as much about a relationship with God as it is about following the law and living in the covenant brought through Abraham and his descendants.
    With the arrival of Jesus, everything changes.  "Afraid" is replaced with faith, believe, and trust.  Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and brings love to replace the law of the OT (Matthew 22:34-40).  Where as faith and believe is mentioned only 35 times in the Old Testament, it is the focus and theme of the New Testament (NT).  In the NT, the word faith is mentioned 242 times.  In that translated word 'faith' from the Greek 'pistus', we have additional words from 'pistus'- believe and trust.  Where the OT mentions 'believe' only 20 times, the NT has the word 130 times.   In total, the Greek word 'pistus' (*1) translated as faith, believe, trust is mentioned in the NT 401 times.  This 'pistus', this 'faith', 'believe', and 'trust' becomes and is our Personal Relationship with God!  Jesus not only taught it, He commanded it!  With one verb, He gave us two eternal commands:


    Jesus brings that change, a new promise, the New Covenant with God:  it is no longer about adherance to the law but about a Relationship, The Personal Relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit!  With Jesus, He gives us peace freeing our hearts not to be afraid.  Jesus, He truly changes our lives.
    As the fear we feel in a situation will heighten our senses to danger it is good, but because of Jesus, we do not need to be afraid or constantly live in irrational fear of anything.   Because of Jesus, our relationship with God, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit we can, with a clear mind and an untroubled heart better deal with the fear and CEASE being afraid. 
    Jesus taught and died to bring us 'pistus'- 'faith', 'believe', 'trust'.                   Faith- is God's Divine persuasion to                 Trust & Believe as Jesus' commands and teaches us.
    In Jesus' Resurrection,    God verified the Truth of Jesus' Words.Words that bring us Faith.
    To repeat Jesus- "I tell you the truth":          God loves us, Jesus Proves it, the Holy Spirit teaches us,              and there is nothing you can do about it.


    Thanks be to God
           Other Great Commands:    Great Commands of the Bible
    See Epilog below on my dealing with the Fear of the Vietnam war for over 10 years.

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    © lonnie coggins


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    Epilog-

    My dealing with fear and living in fear began nearly 10 years before June 3, 1973.  That battle was won in an instant, 15 minutes after midnight.

    On June 3, 1973 I arrived in Saigon for my first flying mission with my self-confidence totally washed away.  In getting to my room dead tired and full of fear I just collapsed on my bunk.  Praying was strange to me as a 24 year old young man.  But, my fear was overwhelming as I prayed.  In that blacked out, dark secluded room in Saigon, S. Vietnam, I humbly and in submission ended my prayer "not my will but thine be done".  In that very instant of humility and giving up myself to His will as I prayed "... thine be done" God's everyday work, what we call a miracle, saved me from myself and my fear.  My circumstances did not change but the strength to walk through the storm I faced suddenly laid me into a deep restful sleep.

    Click this link for the details on why I am so sorry I fell asleep:
             http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2011/06/self-confidence-part-2-of-3-6292011.html



    REFERENCES

    *1  pistus- Strong's concordance- 4102 from the Greek word peitho meaning to persuade
    pistus 4102, http://biblesuite.com/greek/4102.htm
    peitho 3982, http://biblesuite.com/greek/3982.htm



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    Publication  0179


    intro
    Fear is a killer.  In training and before flying in combat I had to learn harness fear and shed the panic.  Jesus, God had/has a great remedy to shed the panic and react to fear in a positive manner.  Click the link for more on responding to your fears.
     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/2013/10/great-commands-of-bible-do-not-be-afraid.html



    God in His wisdom, built a bit of fear in us, a good thing. But, if we do not follow His commands, it is a bad thing. In His grace, He teaches us how to overcome our fears. Click the link below.

     http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2013/10/great-commands-of-bible-do-not-be-afraid.html

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    Thursday, October 3, 2013

    Great Commands Menu


    Great Commands of the Bible, Menu
                                       
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    There are many words of Command in the Bible, 

    Commands from God, 

    Commands from Jesus,

     Commands of the Disciples, 

    and the Commands of Paul.



    © lonnie coggins


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    Great Commands of the Bible, Pray


    Great Commands of the Bible, Pray
                                       
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    There are many words of Command in the Bible, 

    Commands from God, 

    Commands from Jesus,

     Commands of the Disciples, 

    and the Commands of Paul.


    The Command to Pray

    Matthew 6:33 NIV

    33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,...

    • Luke 22:40 NIV

      On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation."

      Matthew 26:42 NIV
      42He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done."


    In the commands found in the Bible, one thing is for sure, the commands are good for us.  

     There is ample evidence that God created one place in the universe for a biological human, the rock we call Earth.  The probability we accidentally evolved from a single cell is so remote, so infinitely small, it can hardly be expressed (*1).  Earth is a unique planet in a solar system that is unique in our galaxy.  And our galaxy is unique to the universe.  God created only one place for His companions to live and then sent His son for 'show an tell' us on how to live.  In short, we are made in His image (*2), and just as good parents want communications with the children they create, so to does God want us to communicate with Him.  Prayer is the answer.

    The Bible, especially the New Testament would be just a nice story except for one event that turns it into the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ.  In God raising Jesus from the dead, any doubt about the life of Jesus was erased.  God raising Jesus from the dead made Holy everything Jesus ever thought, said, or did.  He therefore is the leader of our lives and we must look to Him through the guidance of the Holy Spirit on how to live our lives.  In everything Jesus did, He sat the example that we must follow.  In His praying and in His words to the disciples He communicates that we should pray.  And, that command is a command for good reasons- Prayer-It is good for us.

     There is no doubt that prayer was very important to Jesus.  Just as many mothers teach their children to pray, I think Mary was responsible for Jesus doing this in His childhood.  In reading the Gospels we see Jesus praying many times, sometimes it tells us He prayed 'all night'.  But, He clearly prayed in His good times, but especially at His most stressful times as well.  In His final hours, when He knew His time to die was near, He prayed and he commanded His disciples to pray, for two most important reasons.

     What Mark tells us in His verses concerning Jesus in the Garden is so important.  
    #1-  Pray to avoid temptation
    #2-  By His example, Pray to Be in the Will of God.

     We humans are created to pray to God, that is to communicate with God, our creator.  In searching the Internet, very reputable information can be found on the blood flow activity in the brain during intense prayer.  The blood flow and chemistry activation in the brain is very similar to having a discussion with a good friend!  This brain activity does not occur when atheist have a meditation about God.   Books are written on this subject of brain chemistry and prayer.  But, for this author, Jesus' example lead me to knowing the need of a prayerful life.  In following His example, my subjective experiences wholly confirm what Jesus taught, Pray, and Pray, and Pray!  It is Good for us!

     Jesus was right!  Praying avoids temptations to do things that are not good for us.  Just as Jesus in Matthew 26, Jesus prays for His 'cup', His death, to be taken from Him, but then immediately prays for God's will to be done. We may absolutely want something, but in our humble prayers, in our Righteous praying we will come to know through the guidance of the Holy Spirit  is what is good and righteous for us to do.  In our praying we will come to understand the goodness in Seeking the Holy Spirit in our lives.

     Patient Prayer works or people would not keep doing it.  It is the "acid test" of our lives.  If something works, we keep doing it; if it does not work, we throw it away.

     Prayer and Trust in God, Trust in Jesus and His Word is the Firewall to Temptation!  It is good for us in that:
         1-  It keeps us out of trouble but the Glorious part
         2-  patient prayer leads us to being in the Will of God!

     Patient humble submissive prayer with the 
       Acceptance and Seeking the Guidance of the Holy Sprit 
          leads us to where God wants us to be!-- In His Will.

    PRAYER-
    It worked for Jesus,
       It worked for His disciples,
          It works for us.

     "To be filled with the Holy Spirit,
      you must pray, and pray, and pray everyday."

     Thanks Be to God


    © lonnie coggins


    References:
    *1  Probability of Accidental Biological life
    Darwin's Theory of Evolution is myth.  After 150 years there still is no scientific evidence that truly support 'macro' evolution.  What you learned in school about human life evolving from a single cell (aka macro evolution) has absolutely no scientific foundation! 

    In his Book, "Signature in the Cell" Steven Meyer goes to great length to document the foundation and scientific proof of Intelligent Design, what we call God.  Using the best mathematical minds of the current era, on page 213 it is shown the odds of a human cell evolving from some sort of biological soup is one chance in
      a trilliion, trillion, trillion,.....trillion, 34000 trillions, trillion trillion times.  Put another way- 1 chance in 10 to the 41,000 power, or  1 chance in 10.000,000,000,000,,,, 41,000 zeroes after the one.  This is a probability so near zero, even with all the planets in the universe and the possibilities of life, the probability of life outside our planet is zero.  Therefore, the probability that we exist is zero!  But, we do exist.

    and Guess what, God did it.  Genesis 1:1- God said it, and bang, it happened.

    Meyer, Steven, Signature in the Cell, 2009, Harper One, p213.

    *2  we are made in God's image

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    © 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  0000






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