The Lord Is My Shepherd

Though we try with all our hearts, we cannot lead ourselves in the paths of righteousness. The Lord is indeed our Shepherd. He alone can lead us to pastures well watered. If we worry can we make the least bit of difference?

At times it seems that the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer. Should we give up? Should we follow the ways of this world in search of temporary pleasures or fleeting success?

Our Lord has provided us with a map to lead us around the pitfalls of this world. He changes darkness to light, sadness to joy, and death to life. It is as though we are climbing a ladder sinking in quicksand. The harder we struggle to reach safety, the deeper we sink in the quagmire. We know in our hearts there is more to life than this temporal place we call home.

We’ve heard of a beautiful garden beyond the wall on which our ladder rests, yet early in life we realize we will never scale the wall on our own. We are hopelessly trapped. Our lives are like that, aren’t they? Every moment we sink deeper into the quagmire of this world.

Our only hope is that Jesus will pull us to safety before we move beyond the realm of this frail body. But will we call out His name before it’s too late? Will we take His loving hand in our own and allow Him to pull us beyond the temporal into the spiritual. Will we make the leap from fiction to reality?

The choice is ours alone to make. No one else can make the decision for us. We come to spiritual life one person, one life at a time. We can not depend on our parents, a church, or any other temporal organization to give us access to Heaven. We must have a personal relationship with God. The Lord has no grandchildren. God has only adopted children that He chooses. He has children who follow Him willingly; children, who acknowledge their sin, repent and believe Jesus, God incarnate, died for their sins. He has children who ask God to come into their lives and make them new through the blood of Christ. He has children who are born again of the spirit.

†Atonement:

†Titus 3:5-7

5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through  the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

†John 11:24-26

24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may  die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

†Romans 3:22-26

22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for  all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace  through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over  the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

†Hebrews 9:27-28

27And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so  Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

†Matthew 20:28

28 just as the  Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and  to give His life a ransom for many.”

†Titus 1:2

in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,

†Isaiah 53:6

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

†Romans 6:23

23 For the wages of sin is death, but  the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

†1 Corinthians 15:21-22

21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

†James 2:10

10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point,  he is guilty of all.

†John 14:6

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way,  the truth, and  the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

†John 10:27-28

27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

‡Isaiah 1:18

18 “Come now, and let us reason together,”

Says the Lord,

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

 They shall be as white as snow;

Though they are red like crimson,

They shall be as wool.

‡Luke 5:31

31 Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick

‡1 Timothy 2:5

5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus

‡Ephesians 1:3-10

3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5  having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in  the Beloved.

7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure  which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times  He might gather together in one  all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.

‡1 John 1:6-10

6  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we  make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

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Pain and Death why is there if God is a God of Love?

‡ In the beginning God created man to spend eternity with Him.

‡ Man rebelled against God so that God; because of His love

for mankind allowed the physical body to break down and

parish so that we can join Him after being glorified, to spend

eternity with Him in Heaven.

‡

2 Corinthians 5:1-8

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed,  having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

6So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

‡ To make salvation possible for mankind there had to be a perfect exchange, a ransom; the blood of Christ Jesus.

‡Genesis 1:28-31

 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them,  “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

29And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed;  to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

‡Genesis 2:16-17

 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

‡Genesis 3:17-19

 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake;

In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And  you shall eat the herb of the field.

19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

‡Romans 5:12

 12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned…

‡Romans 6:23

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

‡James 1:13-17

 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

16Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

‡1 Corinthians 15:21-22

 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

‡2 Corinthians 5:1-8

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed,  having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

6So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

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The Lord's Definition of Love is Different From Our Definition.

‡1 Corinthians 13:4-7

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails

‡ John 3:16

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

‡ 1 Corinthians 13:1-8

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

‡John 13:34

34A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another

‡ Romans 8:38-39

38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

‡ John 15:13

13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

‡ Luke 10:27-37

27 So he answered and said,  “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”

Parable of the Good Samaritan

29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him,  he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain  Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had  compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ 36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”

37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

‡ Galatians 5:14

14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

‡ Colossians 3:12-14

12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14  But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.

‡ Romans 13:10

10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

‡ 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done with love.

‡ 1 John 4:8

8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

‡ 1 John 4:16

16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God  in him

‡ Revelation 3:19

19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

‡ Matthew 5:43-45

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for  He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

‡ 1 John 3:11-23

11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as  Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

The Outworking of Love

16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 20  For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22 And  whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

‡ 1 John 4:11

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

‡ Romans 5:5

5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

‡Romans 13:9

9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

‡ Ephesians 5:28

28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it

‡ 1 Peter 1:22

22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere  love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,

‡ 1 John 4:20

20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

‡ Ephesians 3:16-19

16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17  that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height– 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

‡ 1 Peter 4:8

8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”

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