Wednesday... There is a three letter word that brings about death or possibly life.

The writer of Proverbs 21:3 & 4 says, "The Lord is more pleased when we do what is right and just than when we offer sacrifices. Haughty eyes, a proud heart, and evil actions are all sins."

And then over in Paul's letter to the Romans in chapter 6 and verse 23 he says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." The three letter word is sin and it's wages is death. That's what it says. But then it also says that the free gift of God, another three letter word, is eternal life through Jesus Christ. It seems there is a choice.

So what is sin? Well it is a willful transgression against a known law of God. It is not doing what God says we are to do. Sin is disobedience.

Verses 12-13 says, "Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires, Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead," And that is a great word. "Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God."

And this is so important. Verse 16 says, "Don't you realize that you become slaves of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living."

And then verse 22, "But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and results in eternal life." It is our choice. Well, I'm in favor of the slave of God and holiness and eternal life. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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Thursday... Maybe we need this word today.

Psalm 57:1b (NIRV), "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Thursday... Maybe we need this word today. There are words in life that give us confidence no matter what we are facing. Now we have to believe them in order for them to have an impact. David wrote Psalm 57 while he was in a cave hiding from Saul who wanted to kill him and he says in the last part of verse 1, "There I will stay." It was a safe place and Saul didn't know that he was there. But he doesn't stop there. With confidence he said, "There I will stay until." And until is definitely a word of faith and confidence. "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Do we need that today? Let me give you the whole verse. In verse 1 David says, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." And that is a great place to start in times of trouble. Maybe that is what we need to pray today, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." It is so great to have someone...

Tuesday... We just have trouble listening.

1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." Tuesday... We just have trouble listening. Over in Jeremiah 25:4 (NLT) it says, "Again and again the LORD has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention." And Jeremiah went on to tell what was going to happen. There will be consequences if we do not listen to what God says through his Word. Now the Apostle Paul over in 1 Corinthians was having a problem with some professed Christ followers who were having trouble at listening. And we too can have problems at listening. We can think that being a Christ follower means we do a lot of finger pointing and we give up on people who don't do what we say. We can even do that in our families. But Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." In verse ...

Friday... It is so exciting but wait a minute.

Proverbs 19:2 (NLT), "Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes." Friday... It is so exciting but wait a minute. This time of the year is so exciting. We get our paycheck from work and then we head to the store or Amazon and buy and buy and buy all those presents and then our check is gone Proverbs 19:2 (NLT) says, "Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes." But buying gifts can be so much fun and seeing how happy they are when opening those presents makes us feel so good. But then verse 3 says, "People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then they are angry at the Lord." Now for some that is their life. They get money and they spend it on their wants with no thought of what needs to be paid. An important lesson that we have learned is just because you have money in the bank doesn't mean you must spend it. But our enthusiasm takes over. But the problem is when it is gone and there is no money to pay th...

Today's Beginning

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