Sunflower in San Diego

While with my wife, son, daughter, and grandson I took this photograph in San Diego. No special close-up lens and no special lighting, just standard sunlight on a beautiful day in San Diego.

We get depressed, but God is never depressed. We get low, but God is not low. We get worried, but God is not worried. Our anxiety and concern level gets high, but God is not worried.

God is very confident that He can finish the work He started in You. Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ: God does not get discouraged when He looks at us and observes us. God is not discouraged when we fail. He already knows we will fail. He knows the purpose He created each of us for and never gives up on us.

Evening at Sunset

seagull into the sunset – soaring while resting

We should soar in the Lord while we are resting in Him.

Deuteronomy 16:6 …at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt. 7 And you shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose. — a great verse on the place the Lord chooses.

The photo taken on the Oregon coast at Cannon Beach. One seagull standing on railing of our seaside patio.

The Lord’s Prayer – The Sermon on the Mount

The Lord's Prayer given within the Sermon on Mount maybe given on the west side of the Sea of Galilee

The Lord’s Prayer, a Bible Prayer, was given in the Sermon on Mount. Jesus may have given this talk on the north-west side of the Sea of Galilee, Israel.

Here is another Bible Prayer, a model prayer, an example prayer for us to follow.
The Lord’s Prayer was given by Jesus while teaching on the Sermon on Mount. The supposed location is on the north-west side of the Sea of Galilee.

The Lord’s Prayer is in Matthew chapter 6, the sermon on the mount is in chapters 5, 6 and 7. So the model prayer was given within this three chapter sermon on the mount. The main points of the prayer is the following short quick points: Thy Name, Thy Kingdom, Thy Will, daily bread, forgive and keep us from evil.

The passage on the Lord’s prayer is right in the middle of the Jesus Christ giving the three chapter sermon on the mount. The location is supposed to be on the north-west side of the Sea of Galilee, Israel as shown in the picture above.

See several articles on the Lord’s Prayer on this blog

The large building in the picture above is the Church of the Beatitudes or Sermon on the Mount Church. The church was built by the Byzantines. This is considered the traditional location of the sermon on the mount.

Matthew 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

The Lord’s prayer is a model prayer. It has two sections: towards God and toward man. In the first section towards God we learn to pray (1) in His name, (2) for His Kingdom, and (3) for His will.

When we take care of God, He takes care of us. Consider the verse in Matthew 6:33
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” There is quite a promise here, we seek the Kingdom, that is take care of God’s interests and He (God) helps us.

Morning Prayer – Encouraging Bible Verses

Morning time is the best time to connect with God in the Bible and prayer – encouraging Bible verses

Morning time is the best time to connect with God in the Bible and prayer – encouraging Bible verses.

Just before the day gets started, the crazy things come, stresses come, the emails come, the twitters come and then the other billion things that fill a day. Take time in the morning to connect and contact God the source of our life and our strength. He is the one to strengthen us through the whole day.

Here is an awesome morning prayer time animation video.

Consider these wonderful encouraging Bible verses on prayer in the morning.

Psalms 30:5 For his anger is but for a moment,and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night,but joy comes with the morning.

Revelation 2:28 and I will give him the morning star.

Mark 1:35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. Jesus really liked the morning time for prayer and Bible reading.

Sunrise over the Dead Sea, Israel

Psalms 55:17 Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice.

p.s. The first picture above that looks like a sunrise, is actually a sunset in the Pacific Northwest.

Multnomah Falls, Oregon

Bible Prayer for Jerusalem

Bible Prayer – Prayer for Jerusalem – walls of Jerusalem, Israel

Here is another Bible Prayer, a prayer by Daniel while he was in Babylon longing for God’s people to return to the land of Israel. Daniel 9:16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, let thine anger and thy wrath, I pray thee, be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are round about us.

Here is a Bible prayer asking God to make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. This is actually not fully fulfilled until the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is fully established on the earth. Isaiah 62:6 I have set watchmen upon thy walls, Jerusalem; all the day and all the night they shall never hold their peace: ye that put Jehovah in remembrance, keep not silence, 7 and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

The picture above shows some of the walls of Jerusalem. The Lord wants us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Psalm 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you prosper; 7 may there be peace within your walls, prosperity within your fortresses.”

So the Bible is full of example prayers.

The Bible Leads People to Jesus Christ

Bible Book of Revelation – Mediterranean Sea off Israel.
The book of Revelation was written by John on the Island of Patmos about 600 miles east of where this picture was taken.

The Bible Leads People to Jesus Christ

What is the book of Revelation all about? Why would we want to study this book? Well, I mentioned before that the book of Revelation is a proper conclusion to the Bible, but that is not really why it is there. When I was putting the outline of this book together I was concerned about giving the proper message and about how I could help you understand this book. There are twenty two chapters. There are a lot of mysterious things in this book. It talks about prophecy, antichrists and tribulations. There is a city at the end of the book called,” the New Jerusalem”. You have God’s judgment on the world, a lot of heavy and kind of mysterious things. I wondered how I could present these matters, but when I got into this book I discovered that the focus or central theme of this book is really about a person, about Jesus Christ.
When I looked at the Greek version of the book of Revelation I noticed that the first three Greek words are, “Revelation, Jesus Christ.” That means the focus of this book is not prophecy and tribulation although those things are covered. The main point of this book is not even the mysterious things. The main point of this book is Jesus Christ. So if you really want to understand this book, and see it for what it really means, you need to see this person, Jesus Christ.
Let’s talk about another place in the Bible where Jesus Himself gave a real indication that the Scriptures, the Bible, should point people to Christ. I don’t know if you remember the time in John 5 Jesus was talking to the religious people. He rebuked them and said, “You search, research and study the Bible but you won’t come to Me.” This indicates that those religious people knew the Bible, they studied the Bible and they knew about the things in the Bible. They could probably quote a lot of verses, and yet when the Son of God, Jesus Christ was right there in front of them, they wouldn’t come to Him! A lot of times this can happen to us. We may have heard stories from the Bible or we, ourselves, may have read it or parts of it. I have heard of people who picked up the Bible and read parts of it, and that was it! Well, the Bible should lead people to Christ. The Bible should lead people to know Christ and to experience Christ. If your reading and study of the Bible, or your memorization of some Bible stories and verses doesn’t lead you to Jesus Christ, then the purpose for doing so has been defeated. This John 5 passage is very important. Jesus told the religious leaders, “You guys have searched the Scriptures because you think you are going to find life (and you should find life), but you won’t come to Me that you might have life.” In other words when we read the Bible, when we read the Scriptures, this should lead us to know Jesus Christ in a real and living way.

God’s Sheep Hear His Voice

God’s Sheep Hear His Voice – Tree in Israel

God’s Sheep Also Hear His Voice

Now that we have looked at this example of Samuel in the Bible, I want to look at some places in the New Testament that I believe have reference to this matter of Samuel and the Lord speaking to Samuel. John 10 speaks a lot about hearing the voice of God. John 10:3, “To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice…” Who are the sheep referred to here? We, as believers in Jesus Christ, are the sheep. We can hear God’s voice. Continuing in verse 3ff, “And he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. 5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.” In other words, God’s people are figuratively referred to as sheep, here, and they know the voice of God.
Let’s continue down to John 10:14ff where Jesus is speaking, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” There you have God speaking, and we, as God’s sheep, recognizing His voice, just like Samuel in the Old Testament eventually began to recognize the voice of God.
Jesus continues to speak about His sheep listening to His voice in verse 27ff, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and my Father are one.” Jesus says, “My sheep hear My voice.” We need to learn to recognize the voice of God and hear when God speaks. There is also a promise in the Bible, that we will never be plucked out of the Lord’s hand or out of the hand of the Father.

Hannah Prays

Hannah Prays – River and Tree

The priest, Eli, noticed Hannah praying. For some reason Eli thought she was drunk. If you read the first few chapters of I Samuel, you realize that Eli, the priest, was not serving the Lord very well, and his heart was no so much on God. In fact, his sons were doing things against the temple. This indicates to me that Eli was probably too close to the world and was used to seeing people drunk and that is why he thought this lady was drunk. We don’t want to be like Eli; we want to be like Hannah, a person who prays before the Lord.

We see in verse 15 that Hannah went on to say, “…No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.” Eli answered her in verse 1, “… Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.” Eli eventually recognized that she was praying to the Lord and he joined in with her prayer. That is a very important point. Our passage says that the Lord remembered Hannah and gave her a son. That little phrase in verse 19, “The Lord remembered her” really means something. God remembers prayer. Sometimes we pray and we think, “I don’t know if God will remember this or if God will do anything.” God remembers every prayer. God answers every prayer. It may not be answered in the time we expect or in the way we expect. Sometimes the thing we specifically pray for may not be God’s will so God kind of turns that prayer around and uses it in the proper way. Never forget that the Lord remembers prayer and He answers prayer.

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