all i got

All I got today...



Don't throw away this confident trust in the Lord,

no matter what happens.

Remember the great reward it brings you.

Patient endurance is what you need now,

so you will continue to do God's will.

Then you will receive all that He has promised.

Hebrews 10:35-36 (NLT, 1st ed.)

2COR5

2 Corinthians 5

1 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. 4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. 10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.

11 Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. 12 Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. 13 If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. 14 Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. 15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

keeping on...

2 Corinthians 4

16 That is why we never give up. 

Though our bodies are dying, 

our spirits are being renewed every day. 

17 For our present troubles are small 

and won’t last very long. 

Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them 

and will last forever! 

18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; 

rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. 

For the things we see now will soon be gone, 

but the things we cannot see will last forever.

eight four

Psalm 84

1-2 What a beautiful home, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
    I’ve always longed to live in a place like this,
Always dreamed of a room in your house,
    where I could sing for joy to God-alive!

3-4 Birds find nooks and crannies in your house,
    sparrows and swallows make nests there.
They lay their eggs and raise their young,
    singing their songs in the place where we worship.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies! King! God!
    How blessed they are to live and sing there!

5-7 And how blessed all those in whom you live,
    whose lives become roads you travel;
They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,
    discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and
    at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!

8-9 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, listen:
    O God of Jacob, open your ears—I’m praying!
Look at our shields, glistening in the sun,
    our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.

10-12 One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
    beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God
    than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.
All sunshine and sovereign is God,
    generous in gifts and glory.
He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions.
    It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

3 for you

I feel like someone needs to read these 3 verses today.

I don't know anything more than that.

Jesus said to the people,

"I am the light of the world.

If you follow me, you won't be stumbling through the darkness,

because you will have the light that leads to life."

John 8:12 (NLT, 1st ed.)

"You will know the truth,

& the truth will set you free."

Jesus speaking in John 8:32 (NLT, 1st ed.)

"If the Son sets you free,

you will be free indeed."

Jesus speaking in John 8:36 (NLT, 1st ed.)

the focus

These are some of the verses we especially focused on yesterday at Discover Church, Franklin, NC.

The underlined parts were sections we thought about more closely.



Romans 8

15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. 

Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. 

Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 

16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 

17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. 

In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. 

But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.


28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

little / much

John 6

1 After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. 3 Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. 4 (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.) 5 Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” 6 He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.

7 Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!”

8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. 9 “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”

10 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. 12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.

"There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”

Little is much when God is in it.

you

Paul wrote this 2000+ years ago in his first letter to the followers of Jesus who lived in Corinth.

But if we believe that the Bible is the Word of God - it is God talking to us - then the "you" Paul uses in this verse doesn't just apply to the Corinthians - it applies to all of us - each & every one of us that have, are, or ever will exist.

Read these 9 words & let them sink in.

Despite what each of us may whisper to ourselves, or allow the devil to whisper or shout at us, if these 9 words are true, it changes everything about our lives...

...nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

1 Corinthians 15:58 (NLT, 1st ed.)

themessage13

1 Corinthians 13 

1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

love

1 Corinthians 13 New Living Translation (NLT)

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

gifts

1 Corinthians 12

4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, 

but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 

5 There are different kinds of service, 

but we serve the same Lord. 

6 God works in different ways, 

but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 

8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; 

to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 

9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, 

and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 

10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, 

and another the ability to prophesy. 

He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. 

Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, 

while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 

11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. 

He alone decides which gift each person should have.

(New Living Translation)

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, 

but the same Spirit; 

5 and there are varieties of service, 

but the same Lord; 

6 and there are varieties of activities, 

but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 

7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 

8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, 

and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 

9 to another faith by the same Spirit, 

to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 

10 to another the working of miracles, 

to another prophecy, 

to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, 

to another various kinds of tongues, 

to another the interpretation of tongues. 

11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, 

who apportions to each one individually as he wills. 

(English Standard Version)

4-7 Men have different gifts, 

but it is the same Spirit who gives them. 

There are different ways of serving God, 

but it is the same Lord who is served. 

God works through different men in different ways, 

but it is the same God who achieves his purposes through them all. 

Each man is given his gift by the Spirit that he may make the most of it.

8-11 One man’s gift by the Spirit is to speak with wisdom, 

another’s to speak with knowledge. 

The same Spirit gives to another man faith, 

to another the ability to heal, 

to another the power to do great deeds. 

The same Spirit gives to another man the gift of preaching the word of God, 

to another the ability to discriminate in spiritual matters, 

to another speech in different tongues. 

Behind all these gifts is the operation of the same Spirit, 

who distributes to each individual man, as he wills. 

(J B Phillips)

4-11 God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; 

but they all originate in God’s Spirit. 

God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; 

but they all originate in God’s Spirit. 

God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; 

but God himself is behind it all. 

Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. 

All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, 

and to all kinds of people! 

The variety is wonderful:

wise counsel

clear understanding

simple trust

healing the sick

miraculous acts

proclamation

distinguishing between spirits

tongues

interpretation of tongues.

All these gifts have a common origin, 

but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. 

He decides who gets what, and when. 

(The Message)

4 Now there are many kinds of grace gifts, 

but they are all from the same Spirit. 

5 There are many different ways to serve, 

but they’re all directed by the same Lord. 

6 There are many amazing working gifts in the church, 

but it is the same God who energizes them all in all who have the gifts.

7 Each believer has received a gift that manifests the Spirit’s power and presence. That gift is given for the good of the whole community. 

8 The Spirit gives one person a word of wisdom, 

but to the next person the same Spirit gives a word of knowledge. 

9 Another will receive the gift of faith by the same Spirit, 

and still another gifts of healing—all from the one Spirit. 

10 One person is enabled by the Spirit to perform miracles, 

another to prophesy, 

while another is enabled to distinguish those prophetic spirits. 

The next one speaks in various kinds of unknown languages, 

while another is able to interpret those languages. 

11 One Spirit works all these things in each of them individually as He sees fit. 

(The Voice)