Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Thursday March 11, 2010, and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Deuteronomy, chapters 29-31. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-march-11

Title: Bible Study: A Covenant With God
A covenant is an agreement between two people to do or not do something specified. Those whom have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior have made a covenant with God. When God made a covenant with the Israelites, He made an agreement with them to be with them and protect them as long as they honored their part of the agreement. “Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do. Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day: That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:” - Deuteronomy 29:9-15. God promised that as long as they fulfilled their part of the agreement that He would always be there for them and this also included any stranger that chose to live among them as well. The same thing applies to us, when we make a covenant with God, He promises to be with us and protect us as long as we stick to our part of the agreement.

Now, once you make an agreement with God, He is going to hold you to it, God promised to bless the Israelites if they promised to obey His commands, but if they did not, they would suffer. “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” - Deuteronomy 30:15-20. God knows each and every persons heart, if they deliberately break the agreement they will suffer. The same thing applies to us, we have a choice, follow God or follow the world, but if you choose to follow God it must be with all your heart, He will know and you will suffer if you deliberately break your agreement with Him.

God turns His back on all who deliberately break their agreement with Him, God knew that once Moses was no longer around that the Israelites would break their agreement, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.” - Deuteronomy 31:16-18. Do you think that God wants to see the ridiculous things we do and get ourselves into? Of course not. We are children of God, not heathens and need to start acting like we are. That is why it is important that we never lose sight of God, He is the only way that we can avoid getting into things we need to stay out of and also avoid needless suffering. Life is hard enough as it is without adding to the complication.

Today, God has made a covenant with not just the Israelites, but all of the human race, believe in my Son, receive eternal life. “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” - John 3:15. God is saying, “I promise to give you eternal life if you believe with all your heart in my Son, Jesus.” “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” - Romans 10:9,10. What is eternal life? Eternal means forever, so eternal life means we live forever. So, how do we live forever if we die? We have three parts to our body, the physical body, the soul, and the spirit. However, when we are born as babies we possess only two of those parts, the physical body and the soul. This means that the spiritual part of the body is not with us. The only way to possess the spiritual part of the body is by receiving it, we receive it by believing in and accepting Jesus Christ into our hearts. Now, this is what is known as being born again. Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” - John 3:5-8. The spirit in us is what gives us life, it is literally God in us. If you do not know Jesus you do not have the spiritual part of your body. That is why those who do not know Jesus are always searching for churches or religions or careers or people to make them feel alive.

Now, when the physical body dies, the soul has one of two places to go, up into heaven with God or down into hell with Satan. If you have the spiritual part of your body, this means you have eternal life and your soul will go up into heaven until Jesus returns and then you are reunited with it. If you have not received Jesus into your heart the soul dies, which is known as the second death and you end up burning in a lake of fire. “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” - Revelation 20:14,15. Would you rather spend eternity with God or burn? The choice is yours. God is not the one that makes us suffer needlessly, we do that all by ourselves, but praise God that He can even take away the needless suffering. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” - I John 1:9. Have you made a covenant with God? If not, it is not too late, He wants to bless you and see you prosper, but you must first be willing to take that step. Remember, He knows your heart and will save all who truly believe in His Son, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” - Romans 10:10. Praise God!

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and week, we are almost there.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Wednesday March 10, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-march-10

Title: Bible Study: Harken to The Lord, Thy God
As Christians we can rejoice in the fact that it is by God's mercy and grace that He sent Jesus to save us all from a fiery hell and all who call on Him are saved. Praise God! While it is the greatest blessing to receive the gift of eternal life and know that no matter how many times we mess up we are still saved, that does not change the fact that we will not suffer if we do not harken to The Lord, thy God. The Israelites had the best thing going for them, they were God's chosen people and that was the best gift they could have ever received. God assured the Israelites that as long as they listened to Him and obeyed His laws that they would be blessed and avoid needless suffering. “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out............But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: ” - Deuteronomy 28:1-6,15. The Israelites had a choice, if they listened to God and followed His commands then they would be blessed, and blessed abundantly, but if they did not listen to God and follow His commands, they would be cursed. This is a choice that we all need to make, when we listen and obey we are rewarded, when we do not listen and obey we are chastised until we either listen or God says, that's it, I'm done trying to get you to listen to me.

Harkening to the Lord means that we are to listen to every Word that God has written and every command that God has given us. This is where people of the world and even Christians want to ignore the fact that God was then and is now always in control. Something caught my attention this morning when reading this chapter, “If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD; Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee. Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed. And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God.” - Deuteronomy 28:58-62. God is warning the Israelites that if they do not follow His commands they would face all sorts of diseases and destruction not even mentioned in the Bible. Now, this is a great prophecy of what happens to future generations who ignored God as we read through the Old Testament and also of what we are facing today. Think about it. Look at all the diseases and natural disasters that are going on around the world, especially over the past decade. This is not going on because of global warming or any other claims scientists are trying to come up with, this is God sending a warning to us all, you better harken to my voice, now. God does truly want to bless us while we are here on earth, He just wants us to listen to Him, He knows what is best for us.

We may not be bound to the laws that were given to the Israelites, but that does not mean that we are not to obey His commands, His commandments are for all, Old and New Testament times. A testament is a written document that proves as tangible proof of the covenant that God gave His people, the Old Testament was to record the covenant that God made with His people before Jesus came, the New Testament is to record the covenant that God made with His people when Jesus arrived. Regardless of Old or New Testament, there was one important thing that unifies both testaments and that was the blood that was shed to reconcile the people with God and get God to harken to them. The Old Testament is just as important because it foreshadowed Christ, proving that the entire Bible was focused on one person who would tale the place of countless of animal sacrifices and that was Jesus. “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.” - Hebrews 9:12-20. Today, God's first command is to know Jesus, Jesus is the intercessor between God and us, if we do not know Jesus, we do not know God. No matter how many times we pray, or go to church, or volunteer to help the needy, God will not harken to those who do not harken to Him and come to know His Son. “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” - Galatians 2:16. We are not saved because of the things we do for God, we are saved because Jesus Christ died for us and it is only when we believe in Him that we will receive eternal life. “For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” - John 3:34-36.

We heard God say earlier, “ye shall be left few in number” God is weeding out all the devil worshiper's, and false god worshipers, and so called Christians, and false prophets, and false men of God, and only those who have truly know we see life beyond this earth. Jesus said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” - Matthew 7:13,14. Many will try to enter the gate, but only a few will make it through because they have not harkened to the Lord and followed His commands. Praise God, that all who come to Jesus will enter that gate, but if we truly want to see God's blessings here on earth we need to hearken to the Lord, our God. As long as we harken to God He will in turn harken to us and bless us.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and week.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Saturday March 06, 2010, and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Deuteronomy, chapters 14-16. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-march-6

Title: Bible Study: Are You Really in God's Will?
Faithful Christians take a vow to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and mind, they confess their sins, accept Jesus into their hearts, and are eager to live their lives for Christ. Now, we grow a little each day in our Christianity, so, not everyone is going to grow at the same time as others, but over time learn to trust in Him more and more, and are eager to follow His will. When we get to the point that we want to know what His will is for our lives, this is where many people hit a wall and do not grow. Following His will means that we are to slowly let go of the things of the world and replace it with things God wants us to do, even things like music, clothes, movies, and tv shows are to be replaced. Moses reminds the new generation of Israelites of how important it is to let go of these things. “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.” - Deuteronomy 14:2. We are holy, peculiar people of God and have been chosen by Him personally and are above all who are upon the earth. That alone should get us excited, we should be honored to know that we are chosen by God Himself. Sadly, many people do not want to give up the things of the world, it is amazing how many churches bring the world into the church, loud music, rewritten Bibles, and every religion imagined are coming together to compromise with the worldly Christians. However, this is not following God's will, while God loves every one of us and accepts all who come to Christ, that does not mean He condones things He despises. Things like intoxication, adultery, fornication, and homosexuality are still things He will not tolerate. If we truly want to be blessed by God we need to remove all of the world from our lives, of course, it takes time, but as long as we are truly trying, God will show us how to get out of it. I know people that have by the power of God overcome alcohol and drug addiction, and even homosexuality. So, it is not an option to say this is how God made me, it is how you made you, not God. You can get yourself out of any situation that you are in, but you must be willing to do it for yourself, no one, not even God can make you change, this is something that only you can make happen, but once you do, God is willing to help you and send people to help you along the way.

Perhaps another act that keeps people out of the will of God is tithing, this has always been a very controversial subject. I agree that many people have been deceived by churches and so called men of God that do nothing, but take peoples money, but giving tithe is very important to be in the will of God. Moses explains, “Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year. And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always. And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD thy God hath blessed thee: Then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household, And the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee. At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates: And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.” - Deuteronomy 14:22-29. While the common tithe during the Old Testament was animals and food from the harvest, those who did not have these things were to bring money. They were required to remember the Levites because they were God's servants, those who served Him in the church. As long as they gave tithe God blessed them with more. The prosperity of Israel in the promised land did not depend on advanced agricultural techniques, but on its obedience to the Word of God. Tithing reminded the them that they, as well as the land, belonged to the Lord. Since all they possessed was the result of His loving provision, before all other considerations, their tithes to the Lord were to be given first. Furthermore, no Israelite could come before the Lord without an offering commensurate with his income. To merely bring what was left over would be an expression of disobedience and ingratitude. Today, the Lord's ministries, missionaries, churches, Bible schools, translators, and other agencies are God's servants and being sustained through the tithes and offerings of His people. Most people fear giving tithe because they have so many bills and expenses already that to give would anything would be impossible. However, this is where trusting in God comes to play. Jesus addresses this issue, “And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” - Mark 12:41-44. God knows what we are going through and as long as we think of Him and do what we can He will bless anything we give. God loves a cheerful giver, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” - II Corinthians 9:7.

Knowing and following God's will comes down to this, are we willing to trust Him and do the things that He calls us to do. I know people that have come to our church and no longer do because of one reason, they do not like the music, they say it is too boring. Are we willing to give up blessings that God has waiting for us because we do not want to listen to music we think is boring? When we follow God's will we develop a longing for the so called boring music. When I first came to my church I thought the music was a little on the country side, old time stuff, but the more I learned the words, the more I came to love the music that keeps me going every day. Today, I have thrown out all my rock and heavy metal music and replaced it with music God wants me to listen to. Without God's music I would not know how to get through the day. We all have a choice, if we want God's blessings upon our lives we must be willing to give up the world, keep it out of the church, and commit to doing everything God asks us to do. Then He will send us so many blessings we would be encouraging others to seek God as well. “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” - II Peter 2:1-3. God's Word is the only thing that can help us know His will, the more we learn it, the more we grow, the more we lose the world and learn to desire the things God wants for us.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and weekend.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Friday March 05, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Deuteronomy, chapters 11-13. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-march-5

Title: Bible Study: Life For The Heart & Soul
Did you ever wonder, maybe even right now you are, how did I end up in this situation? You spent/spend sleepless nights worrying and stressed out because things did not go as planned, yet the more you did/do to fix the situation the further you got/get into a bigger mess of things? We all have gotten into messes like these and the main culprit to these situations is two things that Satan uses to reel us in all the time. Those things are the heart and the soul. Time and time again in the Bible we will read, love or serve the Lord with all your heart and soul. Moses explains this to the new generation of Israelites, “And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,.......Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; And then the LORD's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you. Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” - Deuteronomy 11:13,16-19. Think about it, the heart is the center of our feelings, the thoughts we get in our head come from the heart. The soul is the center of our physical bodies, the feelings we get in our heart come from the soul. We get into these situations because the soul desires something the heart just can not give and that is life.

What is life? Life is the blood that is within us, without it we are dead, but blood is more than just fluid that runs through our veins. We can not just have any kind of blood put in us, it must be a special type or serious complications or even death can occur. The one true thing to give life to the soul is God and Moses explains this further, “When the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. If the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the LORD hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike. Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh. Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water. Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD. Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the LORD shall choose:” - Deuteronomy 12:20-26. Think about it, the soul longs to eat flesh, meaning it desires physical things that the heart longs for, but the blood, the true source of life, was not to be eaten, meaning God is the only true source for life. We learned from the book of Leviticus that for those that ate blood, contrary to this command of God, it is threatened that He would set His face against them, and they should be cut off. Just as the blood of sacrifices were poured upon the altar, the blood of common flesh was to be poured upon the earth, signifying it was not to be used, and no account to be made of it and in doing so their posterity might be spared, and continue long, and enjoy much prosperity. In other words, our soul is telling us we need something to make us feel alive. Then the heart gets involved searching for anything to make it feel alive, instead of the one true thing that can give life to the soul, and that is God. The truth is without God the heart and soul are always searching for something material to make it feel alive.

Now, Moses also warns the Israelites that they could not just trust anyone claiming to know the true source of life, “If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.” - Deuteronomy 13:1-5. This is warning to all those false prophets and religions claiming that they know God, but lead them so far away from Him. We can not trust every person that claims they know God, the only way to know God is by reading His Word personally.

So, who is the true source to God who gives us life? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.” - John 14:5,6. Jesus is the only true source to life and all who accept Him have life. The soul literally comes alive and then informs the heart to keep it on Him to keep us feeling alive. It is important that we always keep our heart and soul on Jesus, doing that keeps us out of trouble and from getting into unnecessary messes. However, one thing we can be sure on that no matter how many messes we have gotten/get ourselves into that He will show us how to get our of them as long as we turn to Him and get our eyes, ears, mind, and heart on Him.“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” - I John 1:8,9. Praise God! You do not have to worry or stress out about things, God is with you, if you have Jesus with you, and He will help you out of every situation that you are in. He knows what is deep inside your heart and will bring the light to any person who calls on Him. Praise God.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and have a great weekend!
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Thursday March 04, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Deuteronomy, chapters 8-10. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-march-4

Title: Bible Study: God's Purpose For His Word
Bible studies are great to help us not only to read, understand, and discuss the Word of God, but to also keep us in fellowship with others who have the same beliefs as you do. The answer to every question that we will ever have in our lives can be found in this great book. Of course, there are some things that God will only reveal to us when we see Him in heaven, but the majority of questions concerning His laws, commands, why He made them, and even the trials we go through are right here in the Old and New Testaments. Sometimes it may seem as though all God wants us to do in our waking hours is read the Bible and pray, while that is a good thing from time to time, that's why He gave the command of the Sabbath day, He knows that we have other work to do, so He came up with these laws and commands to allow us to do other work without getting ourselves into trouble. Since there were only three people out of the over 400,000 Israelites that were freed from Egyptian slavery still alive to survive the wilderness journey, it was important for Moses to remind the new generation of Israelites about God's laws, commands, and why they were in the wilderness for forty years. Now Moses gets to the good part, he answers their question as to why they were in the wilderness for so long and what God's purpose for it was. “All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.” - Deuteronomy 8:1-3. God places circumstances in our lives to humble us, to remove the pride from our hearts, and to show us that material things are not what we are to live for, but the Word of God. The Word of God gives us the power to know and understand and live the best life we can live on this earth, with no worries, but the second we forget God the worries do begin because we are no longer dependent on God, but ourselves, and that is why He will place circumstances in our lives. When being tempted of the devil, Jesus Himself quoted this verse, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” - Matthew 4:4. Jesus was brought here to show us that no matter how close we are to God the devil is able to try to tempt us, but it is only the power of God through His Word that can keep us from falling into that temptation. Jesus had every part of the soul and flesh that we had and was just as capable as sinning as the rest of us. A vital key to overcoming Satan is knowing God's Word through which we are empowered to be over comer any of His tricks to get us away from God. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” - Hebrews 4:12.

God used forty men, filled with His spirit, to write the Bible, it was written for several reasons, it was written to keep a record of the Israelites journey with God until Jesus came, to show them where they came from and remind them that they were chosen by God Himself to represent Him and show the world who the One true God is. “And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.” - Deuteronomy 10:12-21. God truly does love us and want the best for us, but if we want to receive His best we need to do what He requires, and this is for any generation of God's people. We are to fear God, love Him, trust Him, and delight in having a relationship with Him. We are to serve Him with all our heart and soul, cheerfully and with good will. God knows our hearts and He knows if we are doing something for Him because we want to or out of obligation. God is not forcing us here, He is giving us a choice to serve Him and if we make that choice we need to do it wholeheartedly. It truly is honorable to God when we delight in His Word, respect Him, work, and live in obedience to Him. It is time to circumcise our hearts, to cast away all the things that corrupt it and hider us from truly fearing and loving God as He loves us.

The main reason for God to create the Bible is written in the New Testament, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” - II Timothy 3:16,17. Every word in the Bible is given to us to teach us His doctrine, to show us His truths, the correct us, and to teach us to live righteously. God is teaching us that we are just ordinary, sinful people, with the same problems as every other generation, but we are His people and no matter what background we came from or what we have done in our lives we can turn things around and have a wonderful life, even through trials, serving Him. The first step however, is to know Jesus. If you do not know Jesus, you will never know the true meaning of the Bible, it will be a fictional book to you. The only way the Israelites or any stranger among them was able to be in the presence of God was while He was above them in the Tabernacle. Today His presence still only exists in the Tabernacle, through the Holy Spirit, but this time His Tabernacle is within each person who accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior. “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit........What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” - I Corinthians 6:15-17,19,20. We are God's people and it is time to start acting like we are. We truly have no idea how blessed we are just to be able to say that we are a child of the one and only living God. People make false gods all the time, but not one of them can say that their god is alive and living in them as Jesus Christ lives in us. Praise God! I'll take Jesus any day over the likes and sacrifices that some of these so called Christians have to deal with just to be able to say they are a Christian. Do you know what really makes you a Christian? It is by knowing Jesus personally, the one and only begotten Son of God, who died to save us, then rose again three days later to prove that He and only He is God. Praise God!

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Wednesday March 03, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Deuteronomy, chapters 5-7. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-march-3

Title: Bible Study: A Mighty & Terrible God
When one thinks of the word terrible it does not sound very good, but in the midst of all the horrible meanings that come out of that word, is the meaning exciting terror, which is defined as something awesome, amazing, and stunning. Often you will come across verses in the Bible that say God is a great or mighty and terrible God, “for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.” - Deuteronomy 7:21b. So, if we take the word terrible and think of it as awesome, it comes out as this, God is a great or mighty and awesome God. As Christians, we can all agree on that. Praise God! As we read today chapters, Moses continues to remind the new generation of Israelites of God's commands and His choice to choose Israel as His special people. “Thou shalt have none other gods before me. Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.........Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Neither shalt thou commit adultery. Neither shalt thou steal. Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour. Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's.” - Deuteronomy 5:7-12,16-21. God did not give these commands just to keep them from enjoying life, but so they could in fact enjoy life without all the things of the world that could corrupt them and hurt them. The same thing applies to you and I. While many believe that the ten commandments were replaced when Jesus died and arose and gave a new covenant to the people, we are to follow these just the same. Of course, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior we are redeemed, saved of all our sins, and become one of God's special people, but that does not mean that we are to forget His commands.

Think about it. God's commands were given for all His people to live honorably and righteously, not immorally and corrupt. It benefits all of us if we truly think about what we are doing, sure we are no longer bound to some of the laws that were given to our fathers, but that does not mean that we are not to respect all of God's Word and keep it in our hearts. Moses continues, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.........And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.” - Deuteronomy 6:4,5,24,25. Following God's commands prolongs our life and keeps our heart and soul right with Him.

God assures us that we have nothing to be afraid of, we are His people, special people chosen to receive eternal life with Him.“For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:..…..Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;” - Deuteronomy 7:6,7,9. If we fear (respect) Him and follow His commands than we will not have to face suffering caused upon ourselves. We do not have to do what others do, even if they are in our families. “Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.” - Deuteronomy 7:21. God is with all who put their trust and faith in Him. It is time to take a stand and not let the people of the world keep you in corruption. You may be surrounded by it, but God is a mighty and terrible (awesome) God, who is always with those who keep their heart, soul, eyes, ears, and and mind on Him. Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:28-30. No matter what problems we are facing, call on Jesus and He will make the burden lighter and you will find rest and peace. Praise God!

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Tuesday March 02, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Deuteronomy, chapters 3-4. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-march-2

Title: Bible Study: Just Keep Reading
The Bible is our only true source for understanding and knowing not only our Creator, but His purpose for bringing us into this world. Every person born is here for a reason and used by God in some way, even those who do not know God at all. There is no greater tool than the power of God's Word. After forty years of wandering around in the wilderness I am sure that the Israelites did not want to hear a repeat of what their parents did to keep them from entering the promised land, but it was important that Moses explain it to them. Moses reminded the new generation of Israelites that living according to God's Word would bring lasting fulfillment. He continued to explain the Law that God had given their parents at Mount Sinai and told them why he was not allowed to enter the promised land himself. “And I besought the LORD at that time, saying, O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.” - Deuteronomy 3:23-26. I will say it again, God is not a respecter of persons, even men of God can mess up and lose blessings because of disbelief or disobedience. While, He does not forsake us and forgives us, that still does not stop Him from taking things away from us if we forget that He is in control.

The one essential requirement for remaining in the promise land was obedience to God's Word. “Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.........Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?........And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.” - Deuteronomy 4:1,2,5-7,11-14. The Israelites did not have the entire Bible to read as we do today, they got it a little bit at a time as it was written, so, it was important that Moses remind them of how important it is to be reminded of God's Word often. Whether we can read the entire Bible in a decade, a year, or a month, it is important that we keep reading it. Why? No matter how many times you read something you never sink it all in, you may remember bits and pieces, but if you tried to remember everything all at once your mind would be in overload and forget everything. Ever study for a test and try to get a years worth of knowledge in you in one day? It does not work out very well. And this is why God designed the Bible for us to be able to grasp a little bit of it at a time. You can not read the same passage twice and get the same meaning out of it, I am not talking about self explanatory ones. Do not buy into these people that say they have read the Bible and know everything, no one knows everything. And to tell you the truth, if you do not know Jesus you will never understand any of it, because it is the Holy Spirit that helps you understand it, not your own thoughts. If we left it up to our own thoughts we would think of God as a cruel man that only wants us to sit in a room and pray and read the Bible 24/7, which is probably a good thing sometimes, and destroys us if we don't. Did you notice in the passage, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you?” - Deuteronomy 4:2. God despises those who change His Word or take Words out of His mouth. Jesus Said, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” - Revelation 22:18-20. It took about forty men to write the Bible, these men were guided by the Holy Spirit to say exactly everything that God told them to say. While we may not understand every thing we learn a little more each time we read. The more we read, the more we know, the closer we get to Him and know His will and purpose for our lives. God has wonderful plans for all of us, but unless we read His Word for ourselves we will never know what that is. Know the saying, knowledge is power? God's knowledge is pure power and nothing is more powerful than His Word. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” - Hebrews 4:12. Praise God, that we as Christians are armed with the Word of God, we may not know all of it, but we can say that we know Jesus and have eternal life because of Him. Just keep reading and let the Holy Spirit work a great work in you.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Monday March 1, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Deuteronomy, chapters 1-2. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-march-1

Title: Bible Study: Trust God, Keep Blessings
The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Old Testament/Bible and contains thirty-four chapters. The author of the book is Moses and it was first written for the Israelites. The purpose of the book was to restate the law to the new generation of Israelites that was given forty years ago on Mt. Sinai. What we learn from the book is that obedience to God always brings His blessings, but disobedience always brings judgment.

Whether you know God or not, every one should know that good things come out of being obedient, while bad things always come out of being disobedient. I do not care how long we think we can get away with something, sooner or later it will catch up to us and hit us like a ton of bricks. Then we become angry and bitter, wondering why we are going through the things we are going through. The difference between those who live in the world and those who know Christ is that Christians will know that this was caused all on our own for disobeying God, while the people of the world search for any reason, but God to figure it out and end up making things worse. For forty years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, this was because of their disobedience to God and it was that disobedience that led them to forfeit their right to enter the promised land, when they first saw it. Now, Moses is preparing the new generation to enter the land promised to them by God and reminded them of their disobedience. “And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them;........Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone:” - Deuteronomy 1:3, 7-9. Moses is telling them if they want to go into the promised land that they are going to have to help. For the entire journey all the burden rested on me and I can not get you in there myself. I need you help. We all make the mistake of trying to do everything ourselves, I know that I am one of the biggest culprits of this, but there comes a time where we need to say, I just can not do all this on my own and I need some help. So much stress and frustration in the world can be eliminated if we just ask for help. There is a saying that comes to mind, many hands make light work. If we seek the help of others while we still have everything under control than we will save ourselves a lot of grief when things go haywire.

Oh, how different would the history of Israel and even our lives today could have been if the prior generation would have just trusted the Word of God instead of believing the report of the ten spies. Moses reminded them of what the last generation had forfeited by not listening to Him. “And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers. Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD. Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither. But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.” - Deuteronomy 1:34-38. Caleb and Joshua were the only two people from the past generation that was able to enter the promise land, even Moses forfeited his right for disobeying God. God is not a respecter of persons and treats all of us the same way. Many of us forfeit our rights to God's blessings because of our disobedience. However, praise God, He is a forgiving God and no matter how many mistakes we make He does bless us, all He wants is for us to trust Him. To trust God when we are faced with giants does not come naturally for anyone. It takes a lot of strength and will to be able to withstand the evil forces that keep us from being obedient to God. However, our determination combine with the Power of God can and will help us defeat those giants. “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” - Ephesians 5:17-21. It is important that we stay in the Word of God daily. Having a bad day? Look to the Psalms and pray one of the prayers. On edge? Sing a song to Jesus. Need some guidance? Read a Proverb (there is one for each day of the month). As long as we keep our eyes, ears, mouth, and heart on Jesus than we can face and defeat any giant that the devil tries to send to defeat us. Praise God!

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and week. God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Saturday February 27, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Numbers chapters 32-33. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-27

Title: Bible Study: Think About That Answered Prayer
As Christian's we rejoice at receiving answered prayer, it gives you such a lift and increases your faith in God. Someone who gets a job praises God for that job, someone who is sick or has a health issue praises God for being healed. Someone looking for a mate praises God for sending one. Yet, while they are praising God, He thinking, that is not what I was going to do for you. Sometimes God will test us, He places things before us to see just how faithful we are to Him. He wants to see if we are truly thinking about what we are accepting or just grabbing it with no thought at all. I build websites when I am not doing this and if I took every job that was placed before me I would be in big trouble. We can not assume that everything God places before us is something that He wants in our lives, if it takes us away from serving Him or doing His will than it is not going to be an enjoyable experience. Everything we do in life from the mate we choose, to the job we get, to the right religion follow, needs to keep us in the will of God or we will suffer. For forty years the Israelites had been wandering around in the wilderness, finally they could see the promised land before them and were so excited about crossing over that river to enter the land they heard so much about. However, two and a half of the tribes saw the beautiful land they were in at the present time and longed to stay where they were. They went to Moses and asked him to let them have that land instead of going into the promised land. “Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle; The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying, Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, Even the country which the LORD smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle: Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan.........And Moses said unto them, If ye will do this thing, if ye will go armed before the LORD to war, And will go all of you armed over Jordan before the LORD, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him, And the land be subdued before the LORD: then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the LORD, and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the LORD...........And Moses gave unto them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and unto half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, with the cities thereof in the coasts, even the cities of the country round about. ” - Numbers 32:1-5,20-22,33. First of all, there was no mention of them going to Moses and asking him to speak to God about this and second, they were too quick to see the land before them instead of waiting to see what was waiting for them on the other side. Sadly, instead of going to God, Moses compromised with them and allowed them to stay as long as they helped the rest of the tribes get into the promised land.

The God-appointed territory for all the tribes was inside Canaan, not near by. Yet, the two and a half tribes were willing to give up their birthright in the Promised Land for what they saw as opportunity for material gain. The unity of the nation, their nearness to the Tabernacle, and the presence of God should have been their first choices, but they were free to make the choices they made and the result of it made them suffer in the end. Neither the Reubenites nor the Gadites show any indication of rejecting God, they still expected the blessings and security of God, but did not want to give up the lush grasslands to fulfill His will. Their association with their heathen neighbors on the east side of Jordan soon led them into idolatry, years later they were the first of the tribes to be taken captive. The only time God spoke to them during this time was just before they got to Jericho, “And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan; Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it. And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit. But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them” - Numbers 33:50-56. God gave them all a stern warning, once they crossed over the Jordan, they were about to enter a land full of temptation and in order to resist that temptation they needed to get rid of the people that were possessing their land. If they did not they would constantly face trouble and affliction from them as well as from God.

Today, God is giving us the same warning, He gave us a piece of land to possess and we can not allow the world to stay in it. If we do we can expect trouble and affliction. We can not love God and the things of the world. Jesus Said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” - Matthew 6:24-26. Are we not God's people? Sure we are and He loves us very much and wants us to pray to Him and ask Him for things we need. He will always provide us, but He will not allow us to do something that is going to put us in a position where we have to compromise with the world. That is something we choose to do all on our own and we will suffer for it, maybe not right away, but later on in life we will learn that it was not something God intended for us to have. God tests me all the time to see if I will take a certain job for the money. Once I had a person call and want a me to create a website for a bar. Can you imagine a person of God creating a website that encourages people to drink and watch half clothed women prancing around? I do not think so. No matter how good the opportunity looks, we can not allow ourselves to bring the world into our dwelling place. However, the great thing is that even if we have gotten ourselves into a compromising situation God will forgive us and help us get out of it when we come to Him. Praise God! Never think that there is no way out of what you are facing and that God is punishing you. We may suffer for a time, but once we repent and ask for forgiveness, He forgives and forgets all about it. Praise God! So, let us also forgive and forget things ourselves so we no longer have to suffer for things that God already has wiped from His memory.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and weekend. God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Friday February 26, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Numbers, chapters 30-31. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-26

Title: Bible Study: Take A Vow
A vow is defined as a solemn promise, pledge, or commitment made by a person, vows are very sacred and something that should not be taken lightly. When a man and woman marries they say vows as a promise to stay committed to one another. When a person makes a promise to give his/her life for God they vow to stay faithful to Him, just like a marriage. God, takes vows very seriously, “And Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded. If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth. If a woman also vow a vow unto the LORD, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father's house in her youth; And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her; then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand. But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and the LORD shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her. And if she had at all an husband, when she vowed, or uttered ought out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul; And her husband heard it, and held his peace at her in the day that he heard it: then her vows shall stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it; then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect: and the LORD shall forgive her.” - Numbers 30:1-8. Every person who vowed a vow whether it was to God, a husband, or father was bound to that vow. However, no man can be bound by his own promise to do what he is already, by the Divine precept, forbidden to do. God will not allow someone to stay committed to a vow when it goes against Him. Men are the head of the house, just as God is the head of all, so, in the case of a daughter or wife that makes a vow, she is only bound to it if the father or wife approves. This all comes down to whether or not we allow ourselves to be in subjection to those who have authority over us. When a woman lives in her fathers house, whether she is not married, widowed, or divorced, she is in subjection to his rules. When a woman is married, she is in subjection to her husbands rules. If he allows the vow to be fulfilled than she is bound by it, if he disapproved than she is not bound to the vow. When we ask Jesus to save us and come into our lives, God considers it a vow and we are to be in subjection to Him. That does not mean that we are to be slaves or put ourselves in danger, but we are to obey His authority. God will never place us in a position where we endanger ourselves, we do that all on our own when we do not live in subjection to Him. However, He does forgive us should we fall and will always protect and avenge those who have been hurt by someone who they thought they could trust.

The Midianites were descendants of Abraham through his second wife Keturah, whom he married after Sarah died. The Midianites had devastated Israel, not as enemies who had won a war, but as friendly idol worshipers who invited the Israelites to become involved in the worship of their pagan deity Baal-peor and then to commit adultery with their women, the result led to 24,000 Israelite's being killed. Now, it was time for God to avenge them and He called a war against the Midianites. “And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand. And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males. And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword. And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods...........And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho. And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp. And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle. And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.” - Numbers 31:6-9, 12-16. At first the Israelite's just killed the men, but took the women and children captive, but God wanted all of them to suffer because the women mixed with the Israelite men and the children were the result of that. Anyone that is in a marriage where there is two different lifestyles or beliefs always suffer and or usually the men follow what the women want to make them happy. That is why it is very important that men be the head of the house and women choose a husband that is godly. Otherwise, everyone will suffer, especially the children.

God loves all of His children and never goes back on His promises, if we live in subjection to Him He will bless us for it and no matter how many times we mess things up, He will avenge us for those who do wrong to us, even if it takes years. We have nothing to worry about, when we make that vow to accept Jesus as our Savior and live our lives for Him God makes a vow to protect us and keep us close to Him. “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.” - I John 2:23-25. Praise God!

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and weekend.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Wednesday February 24, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Numbers, chapters 26-27. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-24

Title: Bible Study: Receive Your Inheritance
As Christian's we can rejoice in the fact that we are part of an inheritance of the kingdom of God. Whether we have just accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, come to church only on Sunday's and holiday's, or serve Him in His ministry, we are a part of the kingdom of God and get to enter the promised land. Praise God! While it is not our works that get us to receive such a high honor, only by His grace and the Lord Jesus Christ can we enter the promised land, it is our works that get us a bigger part of the inheritance when we get there. “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” - Galatians 2:16. Jesus Said, “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” - Matthew 16:27. Jesus will reward us in heaven for what we do for Him here on earth. Yet, He leaves no one out, is faithful and keeps His promise to anyone who calls on Him to save them. Praise God!

Almost forty years had come to pass and now God was preparing the Israelite's to enter the promised land. He commanded Moses to number the people one more time, any male over the age of twenty was counted, a total of 601730 men were numbered from every tribe, except for the Levites. The numbering was taken in order to see how many people were among each tribe, the more the number of people the bigger the inheritance they got. “These were the numbered of the children of Israel, six hundred thousand and a thousand seven hundred and thirty. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names. To many thou shalt give the more inheritance, and to few thou shalt give the less inheritance: to every one shall his inheritance be given according to those that were numbered of him.” - Numbers 26:51-24. The Levites were numbered separately because they were not given an inheritance, but to live among the rest of the tribes as they were in charge of keeping service in the Tabernacle. Out of all the men from the first numbering, except the Levites, only two are still alive to enter the promised land, Joshua and Caleb. “And those that were numbered of them were twenty and three thousand, all males from a month old and upward: for they were not numbered among the children of Israel, because there was no inheritance given them among the children of Israel. These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho. But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the LORD had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.” - Numbers 26:62-65. Caleb and Joshua were able to enter the promised land because of the faithfulness to God. They were to only two of the twelve spies that stood by God when the others did not trust Him to enter the promised land almost forty years ago. God never makes those who are faithful to Him suffer from sins caused by someone else. We are all accountable for the sins we commit all on our own.

Speaking of being accountable for our own sins, because of one sin, Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land. “And the LORD said unto Moses, Get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given unto the children of Israel. And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother was gathered. For ye rebelled against my commandment in the desert of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the water before their eyes: that is the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.” - Numbers 27:12-14. Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land because he disobeyed a command from God. The Israelite's were complaining of thirst and God had commanded Moses to take the rod and speak to the rock, instead he spoke to the people in anger, hit the rock, and water came gushing out, he failed to recognize God for the miracle. The rod symbolized the authority of God and Moses represented that authority before the nation but, on this one occasion, he represented the authority of himself and this is what angered God. Only one sin kept Moses from the promised land, but Moses represented the Law that cannot allow even one exception. The Law of God could never bring one man, not even Moses into the promised land for disobeying His commands. This is why it is very important that we very carefully chose how we handle things, while, Praise God, we are no longer bound to these laws, we can really destroy our lives by making one wrong move. Think about it. You are driving in a car, the light turns red and you accidentally go through the light, a car is already flying through the intersection. Bam! You are hit! If you are not saved and die in that crash you will not be a part of the inheritance of the kingdom of God. However, if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you will be walking through those pearly gates into the promised land and receive your inheritance. Thank You, Jesus! Everyone reading this message can receive their inheritance into the kingdom of God. Praise God that all we have to do to get it is to call on Jesus.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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ello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Monday February 22, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Numbers, chapters 21-22. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-22

Title: Bible Study: Trusting God Through Challenges
While people who live in the world face many challenges, as Christian's, we have a few more to face. In fact, it takes a strong person to be able to withstand the persecution and judgment placed upon him just because he believes in Jesus Christ. That strength, in fact, only comes from the power of God Himself and that is placed upon every person who calls on Jesus Christ as their Savior. Now, the persecution we face is nothing new to God's people, since the world began there has always been some person trying to prove himself stronger than God, Satan the main contender, and he will use anyone to cause some kind of trouble, whether it is someone of the world or even other Christian's. To tell you the truth, Satan will use some of the godliest people to turn other Christian's away from God. You know, the Israelite's that traveled in the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan never knew just how blessed they were, of all the generations of God's people they saw first hand the miracles from God more than anyone else. From the parting of the Red Sea, to the manna coming down from heaven, to the cloud in which He dwelled over them day and night, God had shown them all too often just how much He wanted to not only be a part of their lives, but show His love for them as well. His only request, that they give love back by showing some gratitude and trust in Him to provide for them. Yet, no sooner than God gave them what they asked for they were complaining and disrespecting the blessings that were given to them. Once again, God placed some difficulties before them and instead of trusting in Him, they began complaining. “And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. ” - Numbers 21:4-9. Disrespect God enough and see what happens to your life, God understood that these people were tired and weary, but did they ever stop to think that if God had gotten them this far that He would be able to take them all the way to the promised land. Because of their disrespect, God sent fiery serpents their way, which killed thousands of them. However, when the rest of the people came to their senses and repented He saved them by sending a brass serpent. The brass serpent was a symbol of both God's judgment against their sin and of His loving mercy for all those who repented. Like the cross, the brass serpent was for all, but only effective for those who truly believed in Him.

You know what the biggest mistake the Israelite's made was? They could not forget Egypt. Every time they were faced with a challenge they reminded God and Moses of what they left in Egypt. Do you think God did not know what they left? Do you think that maybe He wanted them to just put some faith and trust in Him? Think about it. What if God gave them food other than manna to eat, do you think they would have appreciated it? He could have sent birds, He could have sent fish, He could have sent rain every day, but no matter what He would give them they would still have something to complain about. A person can have a fridge full of food, but say there is nothing in this house to eat. This is why God caused pain in their lives, He wanted to give them something to be grateful for. Those who were not, suffered. Okay, it is one thing to be discouraged at times when we do not get the things we want, but it is another to become so disgruntled that one becomes bitter and enraged at God, things, and other people because things are not going your way. No one said life is easy, but if we have everything easy then we never amount to very much. I have seen so many people who were handed things to them without any effort fall because they simply do not appreciate the things they are given. Sure we get tired and weary at times, but you rest and you get up and keep moving forward. Nothing stays the same and if we keep dwelling on the things that we once had we will never move forward in life for God, anyone else, or ourselves. The greater things in life have nothing to do with personal possessions, they come from God and anything else we receive outside of that will really never amount to very much. We are not to be tempted by the things that the world has to offer, it is all a ploy to get us to side with Satan and forget the blessings that God has given us. “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” - I John 4:2-4. We can overcome the challenges we face because God is with all His children, He is more powerful than any temptation that Satan can throw our way. It is time to deal with things head on, stop thinking about what we had in the past, and look to the great future ahead as we put our faith and trust in the Lord.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Friday February 19, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Numbers, chapters 14-15. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-19

Title: Bible Study: Found, But Still Lost
Did you ever get so close to something or someone, knowing that it would have changed your life for the better, and lose it right before your eyes because of one wrong decision? Well, think of how the Israelite's must have felt being right at the border of the promised land, yet not able to go it? Moses sent twelve men to spy out the land so the people could be better prepared for the land they were about to enter. “And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain: And see the land, what it is, and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many; And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds; And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes.” - Numbers 13:17-20. The land was beautiful, they returned with grape clusters so big that it took two men to carry them, the people were so excited, but then came the news. Ten of the twelve spies were against going into the promised land, claiming that the people were too big and strong to take over the land. They got the people so discouraged that they began questioning God and promises. “And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.” - Numbers 14:1-4. The people were so angry that they immediately wanted to make someone a captain to head back to Egypt. The problem with all this was that instead of trusting God, they trusted the judgment of those ten spies. Only two men out of the group trusted God, but no one wanted to listen to them, instead they trusted the ten who did not and forgot what God had promised them.

Now, when God heard the Israelite's murmuring and complaining to Moses He became angry and was about to destroy them all. However, Moses reminded God of the promise that He made. “And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they. And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.” - Numbers 14:11-16. God did spare the people, but He vowed not to let any person over the age of twenty, except for Caleb and Joshua, enter the promise land because of their unbelief. For forty years they had to live in the wilderness, one year for each day that they spied out the land. It is okay to remind God of His promises, in fact, He wants us to remind Him of them. Why? Because He knows then, that you are reading His Word and holding Him accountable for His promises. Everything we go through in life, teaches us how to be accountable so we can trust in God to fulfill His promises, if we are following the will of God we learn to be accountable for Him. Therefore, we can go before God and say, “This is what you promised, I know You will not go back on Your Word.” and He will listen to us. And be accountable for His actions.

Later, God instructed Moses to speak to the people concerning offerings given to people who sin out of ignorance and deliberately. “Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them. But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.” - Numbers 15:29-31. Now, God was diligent with the people who sinned unknowingly, but those who sinned willingly He was not so diligent with. In fact, He despised anyone who knowingly rebelled against Him. A man simply picking up sticks on the ground on the Sabbath was stoned because He rebelled against God. Even the smallest thing that takes place before God can literally destroy us. Sometimes God's judgment seems so cruel, but truthfully, it is what we bring upon ourselves that brings the judgment upon us, if a person wants to rebel against God then He is going to use that person to show the rest of us that He is not kidding around. It was not him picking up a stick that angered God, it was the fact that he disregarded the one day of the week devoted to only Him. In God's eyes He saw this man as someone who thought himself too great, too good, and too wise to obey His commands. God intended for this punishment to be a warning to all, to make conscience of keeping His commands. He will not be mocked, we can not say that we want to follow Him and then turn around and do everything against what He believes. The right of God to a day of devotion to Himself, will be disputed and denied only by those who listen to their pride and the unbelief of their hearts, rather than to the teaching of the Spirit of truth and life.

God does love us and wants the best for us, but if we choose to follow the world instead of God, He will deprive us of blessings that we could be receiving. I remember when I was only 18, I worked with this guy that I had the biggest crush on. He would ask me for a drink of my soda and I would literally melt because his lips touched the bottle that I was drinking from, yet neither one of us every let our feelings be known to each other. He quit, but a couple weeks later came by to offer to give me a ride home,but I refused it. I let him walk out that door and that was the last time I saw him. I knew the second he left that I made a big mistake and believe that my relationship problems are a result of that. I can not take back that day, but I can change my future by listening and obeying God's commands, which He changes every day as I live my life for Him. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” - Titus 2:11-14. Praise God that we have hope in Jesus Christ, who redeemed us all from our sins, even those we did deliberately. Let us stay close to God so we do not get lost in the wilderness.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Friday February 05, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Leviticus, chapters 11-13. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-5

Title: Bible Study: Cleansed By The Blood
Today's chapters focus on things that clean and unclean, God gave the Israelite's instructions on food they were allowed to eat or even touch to keep them clean. Though every creature of God be good and pure in itself, yet it pleased God to make a difference between the clean and unclean. “And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.” - Leviticus 11:1-4. Although we are exempt from these laws today, several things come to mind. This was a test of the people's obedience, to teach them self-denial, and the government of their appetites. It also was to keep the Israelite's distinct from other nations, many of these forbidden animals were objects of superstition and idolatry to the heathen. The law forbade, not only the eating of the unclean beasts, but the touching of them as well. Today, for Christian's, this would mean that we are to avoid every temptation that would cause us to sin. We must be careful not to abuse our freedom given to us by the Lord, Jesus Christ. When Jesus redeems us and cleans us from our sins, we are called His people, children of the living God, meaning that we are to be holy, just as He is holy. In other words we are to separate ourselves from the world, those who are unclean cause us to be unclean.

Of all the sins committed those of the flesh are considered the worse, although the conception of a child in most cases is not a sin, God addresses a woman's purity after giving birth. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean. And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.........And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest: Who shall offer it before the LORD, and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that hath born a male or a female.” - Leviticus 12:1-4,6,7. What God is referring to here is not regarding a woman unclean from the conception of a child, she was considered unclean due to her infirmities, which is referred to as menstruation or the expelling of unclean blood, which lasted about seven days. The purifying of her blood refers to the complete purification of a woman's body after she gives birth, which took about forty days if she gave birth to a male and eighty for a female. The reason a woman had to wait twice as long was to keep the female population from getting larger than the male. It is called the blood of her purifying because by the expulsion of that blood, which is done by degrees, she is purified. After the cleansing period the woman was to bring offerings to God, they were used to stress the importance of the strength of her surrender and absence from being in the presence God. A man was not to even touch a woman in this state because he too would be considered unclean. Today, while these laws do not refer to us to such a degree, it is a reminder that we are to consider the uncleanness of being immoral with our bodies and the consequences we face in doing so.

God did not just point out women, men too are to keep their bodies pure as well, chapter thirteen refers to the disease of leprosy. “And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests: And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.” - Leviticus 13:1-3. Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease that affects and controls the entire body, it starts out as a white spot then slowly eats through a persons muscle, causing the nervous system to shut down as well as hair loss and even loss of limbs. The reason God addresses the issue of leprosy is that it represents sin, it may start off as a little spot, but slowly destroys a person over time. “And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.” - Leviticus 13:45,46. If someone had been diagnosed with having leprosy, he had to literally shout out unclean, unclean if someone were to come near him as he was not able to be around those who were clean because if he had gotten around them they too would catch the disease. Sin not only affects the person committing the sin, but those around them as well, either they become victims or fall right into their sinful ways as well. God gives each of us a choice to either follow Him or sin, the choices we make need to be within the Word of God, if they go against His Word than we will face the consequences. God told us exactly what He expects from us, and when we treat His Word lightly, and without regards and respect, then we tell Him that we reject His Laws and commandments. At that point we have no one to blame, but ourselves for the consequences we face. We are to be holy, because He is holy, therefore, especially when it comes to our bodies, we need to keep everything we do moral. Of course we will fall from time to time, but when we do, we can keep ourselves from spreading the disease simply by calling on the only man who can heal us from our infirmities. That man is the one and only Jesus Christ, who shed His blood to cleanse us from all our infirmities, even those done with the body. Praise God!

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and weekend.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Thursday February 04, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Leviticus, chapters 9-10. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-4

Title: Bible Study: Forgive and Forget
In the past nine chapters we have learned that, through Moses, God had explained the purpose of all the sacrificial/meat offerings and instructed the priests on the specific manner in which they were to accept and handle the offerings. They were now cleansed and deemed holy before God and it was time for them to begin accepting the offerings from the people. “And it came to pass on the eighth day, that Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel; And he said unto Aaron, Take thee a young calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before the LORD. And unto the children of Israel thou shalt speak, saying, Take ye a kid of the goats for a sin offering; and a calf and a lamb, both of the first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering; Also a bullock and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the LORD; and a meat offering mingled with oil: for to day the LORD will appear unto you. And they brought that which Moses commanded before the tabernacle of the congregation: and all the congregation drew near and stood before the LORD.” - Leviticus 9:1-5. God knew that if Moses just told the people that they were to start giving their sacrifices to Aaron or his sons that no one would believe. So, He had Moses gather all the elders (head of the twelve tribes) together to be a witness to this phenomenon. Aaron and his sons were the first to offer up sacrifices to the Lord, if you notice a calf was added for a sin offering, this was a reminder to Aaron of the huge sin that he made by making the golden calf when the people complained about Moses being gone for so long. Every day he was to offer up a calf as a reminder that he rendered himself for ever unworthy of the honor of the priesthood, on which he had reason to reflect with sorrow and shame, in all the atonements he made. “Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” - Hebrews 2:17.
These many sacrifices, which were all done away by the death of Christ, teach us that our best services need washing in his blood, and that the guilt of our best sacrifices needs to be done away with by One who is more pure and more noble than even the greatest earthly high priest. Let us be thankful that we now have Jesus Christ as our High Priest and that we no longer have to be reminded daily of our past sins. Praise God! This is a reminder to all of us who have some things of the past that we hold on to. Stop killing yourself over them, you asked God to forgive you and He has and forgot all about them, but as long as you keep bringing them up you are proving God to be a liar and God will keep you suffering until you once and for all let it go and forget about it. We can not change the past no matter how much we try, but we can change the future, God does not want you living in guilt for the rest of your life, He wants you to put all of it away and feel good about life. Trust me, I know this for a fact, as long as I held on to my past I was not going anywhere, it took me almost dying before I realized that it was time for me to get out of the past.

You know, sometimes we can get so hyped up about doing things for God that we do not pay attention to what we are doing for Him. Of course, God loves a cheerful and eager servant, but we need to be careful of what we do and allow ourselves to get caught up in. This proved to be the case as we read about two of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu. “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.” - Leviticus 10:1-3. Nadab, and Abihu were eager to show their love for God, but they failed to pay attention to what they were to offer up to God. There are two kinds of fire, the eternal fire that comes from God and the eternal fire that comes from Satan. God Himself placed fire upon the alter, it was holy and acceptable to use to burn incense, but they already had it burning with fire that was not from God. If it had been done through ignorance, they would had been allowed to bring a sin-offering. However, they did it presumptuously and in contempt of God's majesty and justice. The wages of sin is death, therefore, they died in the very act of their sin. The sin and punishment of these priests showed the imperfection of that priesthood from the very beginning, and that it could not shelter any from the fire of God's wrath. Though Aaron's heart must have been filled with anguish and dismay, he spoke not a word to the justice served of God.

When God corrects us or those for sin, it is our duty to accept the punishment and rejoice at the fact that we have been redeemed through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God! I will tell you that I am still suffering the consequences of some of the things that I have done in the past, but I am a forgiven child of the Living God. Although we are all forgiven and are required to forgive and forget, that does not exempt us from facing the consequences of our past actions. So, how do you forget the past although you live in the consequences of your sins? You put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, seek Him for guidance, and move forward knowing that all the suffering will come to pass and a brighter future will unfold as we live our lives for His glory. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” - Romans 5:1-5. Praise God!

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Wednesday February 03, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Leviticus, chapters 7-8. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-3

Title: Bible Study: Feast With God
In today's reading we learn of the trespass, peace offering, and the ten steps that the priest had to take in order to be cleansed and able to receive the sacrifices of the congregation. The trespass offering was an offering that was given to express repentance and sorrow for sin, “Likewise this is the law of the trespass offering: it is most holy. In the place where they kill the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass offering: and the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the altar.…....And the priest shall burn them upon the altar for an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a trespass offering. Every male among the priests shall eat thereof: it shall be eaten in the holy place: it is most holy. As the sin offering is, so is the trespass offering: there is one law for them: the priest that maketh atonement therewith shall have it.” - Leviticus 7:1,2,5-7. The person offering the sacrifice was not allowed to eat the flesh of the animal as it was a time for reflection and fasting, therefore, it was to be eaten only by the priest who accepted the offering, this was the offenders atonement for his sin. Today, we as Christian's should still follow this command and offer ourselves as a spiritual sacrifice to reflect and fast over the atonement of our sins which only comes from the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Peace offerings were not a requirement, they were given to express thanks and praise to God for not only the atonement of their sins, but other blessings as well. “And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the LORD. If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried. Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings. And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for an heave offering unto the LORD, and it shall be the priest's that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.” - Leviticus 7:11-15. Unlike the sin and trespass offerings, the person offering the sacrifice was allowed to eat the flesh and bread along with priest accepting the offering. The peace offering was the last one to be offered because there could be no peace or fellowship with God until all the regulations of the sin and trespass offerings had first been obeyed. The special feature of the peace offering was the sacrificial meal wherein the priest and the worshipper shared together what was offered, and part of the offering was presented to God upon His altar, as though it were being consumed by Him. After these sacrifices the worshipper was acceptable to God and could enjoy fellowship with Him, it was a joyful feast celebrating restored peace and communication with God. Today, we too can enjoy a great feast with God as we celebrate the restored peace that only comes by accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. All who accept Christ are acceptable to God. Praise God! I remember this past Christmas, we had an extra chair at the table, we used it to invite Christ to eat with us. God rejoiced that day because we wanted Him there and rejoices whenever we invite Him into our daily lives.

Before a priest could accept a sacrifice from an offender, he too had to restore fellowship with God. He had to be completely cleansed and atone for his own sins before he was able to assist God in accepting the sacrifices that would be an atonement for others. This was unlike any sacrifice that a common person had to make, ten steps were taken in order for a priest to be cleansed. “And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water. And he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the curious girdle of the ephod, and bound it unto him therewith. And he put the breastplate upon him: also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim. And he put the mitre upon his head; also upon the mitre, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown; as the LORD commanded Moses.........And he brought the other ram, the ram of consecration: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram. And he slew it; and Moses took of the blood of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot. And he brought Aaron's sons, and Moses put of the blood upon the tip of their right ear, and upon the thumbs of their right hands, and upon the great toes of their right feet: and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about.” - Leviticus 8:6-9,22-24. Three animals had to be sacrificed, the ram of congregation was the sacrifice that would set them apart from the common people, it made them holy before God and able to receive the sacrifices. The right ear, right hand, and right foot were to have blood applied to them. When applied to the ear, it meant that they were to keep their ears holy, meaning they were to listen to no conversation that would violate their congregation to God or distract them from hearing His voice. When applied to the thumb, it meant that the hand was qualified to accept the gifts and sacrifices for God. When applied to the big toe, it meant that they were now holy before God and had to be careful of their daily activities as to not defile their bodies. As Christian's, we too are to apply the blood of Christ upon our right ear, thumb, and big toe, for we are the Temple of God and are holy before Him. Our daily activities need to be thought out and reflected upon Christ, even the people we are around can distract us, keep us from hearing God, and defile our bodies. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” - I Corinthians 3:16,17. We are so blessed that Christ offered Himself as the ultimate sacrifice so that we can enjoy fellowship with God and atone for all of our sins for good. Therefore, we can all enjoy fellowship and feast with God, but we must be willing to keep the blood of Christ applied to us daily if we want it to stay that way..

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Tuesday February 02, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Leviticus, chapters 4-6. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-2

Title: Bible Study: Reconciled With God
Today's chapters focus on sin offerings, there were certain conditions necessary to make a sin offering acceptable to God. Every man had to bring his own sacrifice to God, he had to offer it willingly and take a personal part by laying his hands on the head of his sacrifice to make it representative of his sins. Then he slew the animal, and the body of this sin offering was burned outside of the camp. God explains how even people who unknowingly commit sin can be reconciled with Him. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them: If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering.” - Leviticus 4:1-3. God knew at times, that the people did not know that what they were doing was sin, so He made a way for us to be reconciled with Him whether the sin be knowingly or unknowingly. You know sometimes it seems like we are suffering for things, yet we do not know why. Well, this is when we need to go to God and ask Him to search our hearts for any sin we made out of ignorance. Sin is sin, no matter if it is knowingly or unknowingly, so we will face some consequences regardless, but the sooner we realize what we are doing is sin, the quicker we can get right with God and avoid more unnecessary suffering. He is not just going to come out and tell us that we sinned, He actually does that before we sin, but once we commit the sin He will let us be the ones to figure it out. I was just spending time with God this morning, I will tell you that I have been struggling with some things since before the beginning of the year. He just revealed to me my sin and why I have not gotten anywhere in the past three months, it was not even anything real big, but it was keeping me from moving forward and until I let God show me what it was I would have kept struggling.

Now, if someone sinned against their soul, even if one was to witness something and did not speak the truth it is considered sinning with the soul and you would bare the suffering that the guilty one suffered. “And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty. Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatsoever uncleanness it be that a man shall be defiled withal, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty. Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these. And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing: And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin.” - Leviticus 5:1-6. Sins listed here are touching things that are unclean, this is things like a dead body or animal, even touching a woman that was menstruating is considered unclean. In these cases the offender must confess his sin, and bring his offering, but the offering was not accepted, unless accompanied with confession and humble prayer for forgiveness. We can not hide ourselves from sin, the guilt of sin will tear us apart so, the best thing to do is just admit the sin and be done with it. While God forgives all the sins of those who call on Jesus to save them, there are just some sins that we knowingly do as a Christian that we need to come face to face with God, literally get down on our knees and beg Him for forgiveness. That is the only way that we can reconcile with God as well as move forward in life. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” - I John1:9.

The sin offering represents Christ who would die in the sinner's place. Animal sacrifices served their purpose until Christ shed His sinless blood on the cross for man's sins. Today by faith, the sinner who believes that Jesus died in his place is forgiven of his sins and receives Christ as Savior and Lord of his life. This is the only way to be reconciled with God.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Monday February 01, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Leviticus, chapters 1-3. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-1

Title: Bible Study: Salt of The Earth
The book of Leviticus is the third book of the Old Testament/Bible and contains twenty-seven chapters. The author of the book is Moses and it was written to the people of Israel. This book was a manual of worship for Israel, it was provided to give them instructions on how a sinner could fellowship with God. It relates to the coming of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the sinner in order to allow him to know God. The purpose of the book was to show Israel how to live as a holy nation in fellowship with God and to prepare them to extend God's plan of redemption to all nations. What we are to learn from the book is that God only redeems and fellowships with us if we willingly come to Him through Jesus Christ. The first three chapters of the book of Leviticus explain the offerings that the people were to bring to God in order to be able to fellowship with Him, the offerings were actually voluntary and set according to a persons wealth, if one was not able to afford cattle to offer as a sacrifice, God allowed what they could afford. He gave every person the opportunity to be redeemed from their sins, regardless of their financial status. “And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.........And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the LORD be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves, or of young pigeons.” - Leviticus 1:1-3,14. The offering symbolized the person giving his own life in full submission to God without a selfish motive. If the person owned a herd, then he offered a bull. If, however, the he possessed only flocks, then his offering would be a lamb or a goat; for either of these men to offer pigeons would have been offensive to God. But, if the person were so poor that he did not own a herd or a flock, then an acceptable offering could be the less expensive turtledoves or young pigeons. You know, today some religions will ban a person from the church if they could not afford to give tithes and offerings, but God never turns away someone who truly wants to be forgiven and get right with Him. Praise God!

Besides sacrificial offerings the people were oblation offerings (given as a form of thanks), known as meat offerings, this was in the form of flour, grains, fruits, or vegetables. “And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon: And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD: And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons': it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.......... No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire. As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the LORD: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour. And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.” - Leviticus 2:1-3,11-13. The term "meat" was, and still is, properly given to any kind of provision, and the greater part of this offering was to be eaten for food, not burned. Leaven is the emblem of pride, malice, and hypocrisy, and honey is of sensual pleasure this is why this was forbidden to be given and an offering. Salt was required in all the offerings, including sacrificial offerings, salt makes things savory and preserves food, representing the savoriness and acceptableness of Jesus Christ as a meat offering for His people. As we accept Christ as our Savior we send up not only the sweet smell of His blood, but the sweet savory, salted meat offering of His body, who is well pleased with his sacrifice.

Incidentally, Christian's are represented as the salt of the earth, so it is very important that as Christian's we keep ourselves savory. Jesus said, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” - Matthew 5:13. What Jesus is referring to here is people who get saved and really have no interest in God, when we accept Jesus as our Savior we are seasoned by the knowledge and grace that comes only from Him. While works do not save you, grace does, but if we say that we have accepted Christ as our Savior and really do not mean it, that is as salt that has lost it's flavor. God will cast out all who are not sincere in wanting to be saved. However, praise God, for those who truthfully want to fellowship with God for when they call on Jesus, even if they lose their flavor, they are re-seasoned with the salt of God's grace and are savory to Him one again.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and week.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Thursday January 28, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Exodus, chapters 32-34. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-january-28

Title: Change God's Mind
We have all gotten ourselves into a mess or two over our lifetime, whether it be as a child or an adult, often the consequences of them far out way what we had done in the first place. In fact, much of the impact goes beyond just you facing the consequences, but others as well. I remember when I was in the third grade, this was when it was allowed to spank a student, if one student got out of line the entire class had to be punished and would have to one by one stand over the teachers desk with their hands over the desk while she wacked them with a ruler. I will tell you what, it was bad enough getting into trouble let alone having the entire class mad at you for getting punished for something they had not done. So, we feared doing something that was going to get us not only in trouble with the teacher, but our classmates as well. This is why God, in a sense, punishes us at times, if we get punished or chastised those around us do also, so we fear the punishment and think twice about doing something that is going to get us into trouble with God and those around us. God's punishment can seem pretty severe sometimes, but you know what? We can change God's mind. Yes, that is right, we can change God's mind. Moses got God to change His mind about destroying all the Israelite's. While Moses was up on mount getting instructions from God, the Israelite's got impatient and decided to create their own god. “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” - Exodus 32:1-4. Okay, it was bad enough that they created this calf, which was one of God's first commands not to do, but to call it a god, worship it, and say that it set them free from the Egyptians is really going to get them in some trouble. The worse thing was that they knew that there was only One God and that He was the one that set them free, yet they were quick to turn their back on Him because they had to wait. You know, I do not care what age we are in, taking things in our own hands always gets us in trouble and pretty much hurts those around us as well.

I am sure not all of them participated in this treachery, but God did not care, He was so angry at what was going on that He literally was about to destroy all of the Israelite's. “And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” - Exodus 32:9-14. Moses reminded God of the promise that He made and what He had done for His people thus far. After God had some time to think about it, His anger subsided and He repented and changed His mind. Can you imagine God repenting? Repenting means to feel sorrow or reflect about what we have done or were about to do. God was sorrowful about what He was about to do. You know, we can too can destroy someone out of anger, that is why it is important that we calm down and think about things before we do them. Moses gave God time to think about things and it enabled Him to change His mind.

We all have the power to change God's mind, it is just a matter of whether or not we are willing to accept the responsibility of our actions. God did change His mind about destroying all the Israelite's, but He was not going to let those who caused the rest of them to sin to get away with it. God despises those who cause others to sin more than us sinning ourselves. However, God is a merciful and forgiving God and is willing to forgive even the most detestable sins if we come to Him. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” - Ephesians 2:4-10. The only way we can change God's mind is through Christ, He is the Moses of today that goes before God and reminds Him of the promises that He made to His people, we of who are His people. Want to change God's mind? Talk to Jesus and He will help you change His mind.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Wednesday January 27, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Exodus chapters 29-31. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can click here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-january-27

Title: Bible Study: Need A Cleansing?

There are so many blessings in life that we truly have no idea how blessed we are, just by the little things we do every day. For instance, after a hard day of work or play nothing feels better than taking a hot shower, it not only cleanses you, it refreshes you and gives you a boost too. Now, it is not just the water that cleanses us, but the soap and cloth is also needed or the water will not be as effective. As Christian's we are blessed with another way in which we are cleansed a cleansing that only comes from the blood of Christ. The second we accept Jesus as our Savior we are cleansed by His blood, of all our sins, it is as if this entire weight of filth just washes instantly off of your body, you feel refreshed and vibrant, ready to take on any situation you are faced with. Now, that is a cleansing! Praise God!

Think about just how blessed we are to have Jesus here today! You know, it seems too good to be true that all we have to do to be washed clean of our sins is to call on Jesus. I guess the simple things are the hardest to believe, but there is more merit in the simple things than there is in the complicated. For instance, God instructed Moses on what the priests (Aaron and his sons) were to do in order to be cleansed to even be able to communicate with God. In order for the Israelite's to communicate and reconcile their relationship with God, they needed to go before a priest with their sacrifices and offerings, but in order for the priest to be able to minister to them and accept the sacrifice for God they too had to be cleansed from all their sins. Now, keep in mind that these things had to be done daily, “And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest's office: Take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish, And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of wheaten flour shalt thou make them. And thou shalt put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams. And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water. And thou shalt take the garments, and put upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod: And thou shalt put the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre. Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him.” - Exodus 29:1-7. They needed to sacrifice, not one, but three animals in order to hallow (sanctify or cleanse) themselves. The anointed oil represents the Holy Spirit, when the priest poured the oil on his head the Spirit of God came upon him and allowed them to be able to communicate with God, which also reminds us that the Holy Spirit is a separate person, yet one with God.

Now, being cleansed to minister to the people was just the beginning, every morning and evening a lamb was to be offered upon the altar in order to keep continual communication with God. “Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even: And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering. And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning, and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD. This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee.” - Exodus 29:38-42. The only way that God will communicate with us is by offering a continual sacrifice to Him. When we accept Jesus Christ into our lives, God accepts Him as the sacrifice, which in turn cleanses us from our sins and allows us to be able to communicate with Him.

Although we get a good cleansing from the blood of Jesus, it is important to realize that we need to do more for it to be effective. If we truly want God in our lives and have a relationship with Him we still need to offer a daily sacrifice to Him. That sacrifice is ourselves, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” - Romans 12:1,2. We are to offer ourselves as a living spiritual sacrifice, daily, not just once in a while, but every day. Otherwise we will never grow in our relationship with God. We do this by having a relationship with Jesus, learning God's Word, praying, and learning His Will for your life. So, maybe you have done some things that you shouldn't have done and gotten away from God, I am sure you feel ashamed and filthy, but it is time to get good cleansing. Just call on Jesus and He will cleanse you. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” - I John 1:7. Praise God!

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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