Training in godliness is greater than physical training.

1Timothy 4:

⁶ If you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ Jesus, one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teaching you have followed. ⁷ Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly. ⁸ “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” ⁹ This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it.¹⁰ This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Today put your instructions deep within us and write them on our hearts. Fully be our God and yes, as Christians, we will be your people.

Most sincerely,

Me

Jeremiah 31:

^1”The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. ³² This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord.

³³ “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Jesus gave His life so that all would have the opportunity to get free from the grip of sin. God loves all. Let God’s freedom ring throughout the world and bring massive, intense revival that would sweep across this planet!

2 Timothy 2:

1 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. ² Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.³ This is good and pleases God our Savior, ⁴ who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.⁵ For,

This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.

I follow Jesus everyday. No regrets because each morning I look to Him to direct my day and protect my family. In all my shortcomings and disappointments I cling to God and speak His promises over my family’s life.

Continue reading →

Personally, I gotta work harder and be more versatile for God. I’m thankful for opportunities to grow at church. Even though I meet them with words of opposition. I’ve been praying many years for revival. If God opens the window of blessings over our Christian lives and pours out a revival that’s so massive it’s hard for us to take it all in. We must anyway.

God, give me the attitude to promptly take on these blessings even if my flesh is saying no. In the moment, dear God, help me promptly stop my mouth from speaking and yielding to a tired body.

2 Thessalonians 3:

⁶ And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from all believers^[a] who live idle lives and don’t follow the tradition they received^[b] from us. ⁷ For you know that you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. ⁸ We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you. ⁹ We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow. ¹⁰ Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”

¹¹ Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business.¹² We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn their own living. ¹³ As for the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.

Jeremiah stood in front of the temple. The people were there. Jeremiah had to tell them bad news. God said for him to say every word He spoke to Jeremiah. (The setting has similar details to when Jesus was found falsely guilty by the Jews and sentenced to die on the cross.)

The crowd wanted Jeremiah to die for speaking the harsh truth that Jerusalem would be cursed because of their great sin. But then, wise old men spoke up and told that God may change His mind if the people begged for mercy.

After all of this, one person stepped forward for Jeremiah and kept him from dying. He is not a famous Bible character. But his role was needed and critical in Jeremiah’s life. He was a member of the Shaphan family who were connected to King Josiah, a godly king of Judah.

Ahikam was his name. In a moment of bold obedience, he saved Jeremiah’s life.

Jeremiah 26:

1 This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord early in the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah. ² “This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard in front of the Temple of the Lord, and make an announcement to the people who have come there to worship from all over Judah. Give them my entire message; include every word. ³ Perhaps they will listen and turn from their evil ways. Then I will change my mind about the disaster I am ready to pour out on them because of their sins.

⁴ “Say to them, ‘This is what the Lordsays: If you will not listen to me and obey my word I have given you, ⁵ and if you will not listen to my servants, the prophets—for I sent them again and again to warn you, but you would not listen to them— ⁶ then I will destroy this Temple as I destroyed Shiloh, the place where the Tabernacle was located. And I will make Jerusalem an object of cursing in every nation on earth.’”

⁷ The priests, the prophets, and all the people listened to Jeremiah as he spoke in front of the Lord’s Temple.⁸ But when Jeremiah had finished his message, saying everything the Lordhad told him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people at the Temple mobbed him. “Kill him!” they shouted. ⁹ “What right do you have to prophesy in the Lord’s name that this Temple will be destroyed like Shiloh? What do you mean, saying that Jerusalem will be destroyed and left with no inhabitants?” And all the people threatened him as he stood in front of the Temple.

¹⁰ When the officials of Judah heard what was happening, they rushed over from the palace and sat down at the New Gate of the Temple to hold court.¹¹ The priests and prophets presented their accusations to the officials and the people. “This man should die!” they said. “You have heard with your own ears what a traitor he is, for he has prophesied against this city.”

¹² Then Jeremiah spoke to the officials and the people in his own defense. “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this Temple and this city,” he said. “The Lord gave me every word that I have spoken. ¹³ But if you stop your sinning and begin to obey the Lord your God, he will change his mind about this disaster that he has announced against you. ¹⁴ As for me, I am in your hands—do with me as you think best. ¹⁵ But if you kill me, rest assured that you will be killing an innocent man! The responsibility for such a deed will lie on you, on this city, and on every person living in it. For it is absolutely true that the Lord sent me to speak every word you have heard.”

¹⁶ Then the officials and the people said to the priests and prophets, “This man does not deserve the death sentence, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”

¹⁷ Then some of the wise old men stood and spoke to all the people assembled there. ¹⁸ They said, “Remember when Micah of Moresheth prophesied during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah. He told the people of Judah,

¹⁹ But did King Hezekiah and the people kill him for saying this? No, they turned from their sins and worshiped the Lord. They begged him for mercy. Then the Lord changed his mind about the terrible disaster he had pronounced against them. So we are about to do ourselves great harm.”

²⁰ At this time Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim was also prophesying for the Lord. And he predicted the same terrible disaster against the city and nation as Jeremiah did. ²¹ When King Jehoiakim and the army officers and officials heard what he was saying, the king sent someone to kill him. But Uriah heard about the plan and escaped in fear to Egypt.²² Then King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Acbor to Egypt along with several other men to capture Uriah.²³ They took him prisoner and brought him back to King Jehoiakim. The king then killed Uriah with a sword and had him buried in an unmarked grave.

²⁴ Nevertheless, Ahikam son of Shaphan stood up for Jeremiah and persuaded the court not to turn him over to the mob to be killed.

This passage from Psalm 84 is filled with great promises from God. I confidently live a life of obedience to God so I proclaim these as reality in my life and my family’s life.

Psalm 84:

Jeremiah told of the future birth of Jesus.

Jeremiah 23:

“For the time is coming,”
    says the Lord,
“when I will raise up a righteous descendant
    from King David’s line.
He will be a King who rules with wisdom.
    He will do what is just and right throughout the land.
⁶ And this will be his name:
    ‘The Lord Is Our Righteousness.’
In that day Judah will be saved,
    and Israel will live in safety.

Paul wrote two letters to the church at Thessalonica. In the first one he ended it with a list of several things to do to live a more godly life.

1 Thessalonians 5:

¹² Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance.¹³ Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other.

¹⁴ Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.

¹⁵ See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people.

¹⁶ Always be joyful. ¹⁷ Never stop praying. ¹⁸ Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

¹⁹ Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Do not scoff at prophecies, ²¹ but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. ²² Stay away from every kind of evil.

²³ Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. ²⁴ God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.

²⁵ Dear brothers and sisters, pray for us.

²⁶ Greet all the brothers and sisters with a sacred kiss.

²⁷ I command you in the name of the Lord to read this letter to all the brothers and sisters.

²⁸ May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

This is really fun. Since I read the Bible every day of every year, it gets more and more familiar. I’m so thankful. When I read one passage it reminds of another. So then, I get to enjoy comparing the two.

I read Jeremiah 17:7-8. It really reminds me Psalm 1. Lots of times going through the Bible day by day will cause me to pull together truths that you just can’t find by doing a word study in a search engine or using a chain reference Bible.

So here we go, let’s compare the two passages. And then pray these powerful words of God over our family!

Jeremiah 17:

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord
    and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
⁸ They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
    with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
    or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green,
    and they never stop producing fruit.

Psalm 1: