I left the end of the title open because it needs to be. All of us go through life with pain at some point. Arthritis, achy joints because of age or other problems, or plain, worn-out joints, so just getting up from a chair or bed is sometimes painful. Whether this causes us “suffering” is an individual thing. The pain can be sharp or intense sometimes but most days it doesn’t last for long. On other days the pain is a constant ache and it seems to become less achy as the day goes on but it never really goes away. What is my point in beginning my writing today in such a manner?
The point is that each of us has to deal with pain at some point in our lives. Sometimes it is because of age or disease. Sometimes it is because of the loss of a family member or a close friend. In either instance, the loss is felt deeply and it may take a long time for us to learn how to handle it. Emotional pain is the kind that never goes away. We need to seek God’s strength to help us through it every day.
Our world and the problems that we have to live with each day are caused by the sin that Adam brought into the world. We can’t fix them on our own and we can’t fix the problems brought on by the sins against God in the garden. Our sins cause the problems that we have in our world today. We can’t blame the problems that we have today on our parents or grandparents. Our world and its tribulations were brought on because of our sinful ways today, not because of someone else’s actions that were done years ago.
Jesus said that we would have trials in this world but He also said that we should have faith in Him because He overcame the world. Have faith in Him for your salvation and your provision for today and tomorrow and for your eternity that is to come. He is the only way to gain access to Heaven. It is our faith and belief in Jesus that brings us salvation and nothing else.
This post has been so popular I want to re-post it today.
How many times does the word “believe” or one derived from it show up in the Bible?
The word or one with believe inside it, appears 249 times in the Bible. You would be astonished at how few times it really shows up in the Old Testament though. I have published this elsewhere on another site of mine under another name, but I am putting the same disclaimer here: I researched this information using the search function on my Kindle Fire inside the King James Bible. The results may be different from other areas or concordances but the numbers that I have here came from this search alone.
In Exodus, it shows up six times. That is all of the times that the word believe or believeth is present in the book of Exodus, the chronicle of Israel’s journey out of Egypt and on the way to becoming a nation.
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What does it mean to be redeemed? The word, redeemed, can mean many things. It can mean that you are saved from the situation that you were in. Whether that situation was slavery or sin or debt, redemption from any one of these can bring joy and peace to you and your family. Redemption from sin is the one that I’m writing about here because it was and is part of the message and the mission of the church that Jesus and His disciples began so many years ago.
What does redemption mean to you? In my life, it has brought peace and joy that I never imagined I would ever have. Mainly because those two emotions can’t be gained by anything that we can do ourselves. Peace and joy only become real in your life when you have something that you cannot lose regardless of how the world around you tries to take it from you. Salvation and redemption come to us through our belief in Jesus and only by our belief in Him.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: They will be still praising thee. Selah. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; In whose heart are the ways of them. Psalm 84:4-5 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.84.4-5.KJV
When this Psalm was written, David was no longer writing them. But the message is still the same. Blessed is the man or the country that gains wisdom and strength from the Lord and the knowledge of His ways. All of us are blessed whether we believe it or not. God has given us the Earth as our home. He created the atmosphere and the water and all of the things that we need for life. God even created all of the trees and the animals and the grass and the air that we breathe, so shouldn’t we give thanks for everything that we have?
God loves His Creation and everything in the universe is His creation. Although it is true that many people believe that all of the stuff that we see in space and all around us came about by accident…none of it did. There had to be a Planner and a Creator to put everything in its place and create it the way that it should be. Creation doesn’t just happen. A car or a building doesn’t just happen because all of the parts are there. There has to be a plan and a designer and a builder to make those things happen so we were created by God, the Designer, and Builder of everything.
So…are you blessed? Yes! All of us are blessed by God each and every day of our lives. Live your life as a blessed and loved child of God. If you don’t know Him as your Savior then seek Him out as soon as you can.
There is no other place to put your hope except in the Lord.
The Living Message of Christ 