In Your Name, Jesus

In Your Name, Jesus Helping the Homeless and the Hungry in Nashville

10/30/2023

"Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand." ~ Isaiah 41:10 (NLT)

In Isaiah 41, God promises His servants, Israel and Jacob and all of Abraham's descendants, that He will carry them through to victory and that He will bring their enemies to nothing, to where they cannot be found.

He tells His servants that He has chosen them and has not rejected them. He promises them that He will not forsake them.

God also says that He has sent His messenger of the Good News to His people, telling us of Jesus to come.

God always gives us the victory, in this life and the next, in eternity with Him.

Regardless of our fear or discouragement, He will hold us up, help us persevere, and raise us up in victory at the end.

Psalm 118 tells us, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." ~ Psalm 118:1 (NIV)

King David, if he is the psalmist here, tells us over and over that God's Love for us lasts forever. The entire psalm is a celebration of joy in God's Love and thankfulness for his goodness.

"Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: 'The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things! The Lord’s right hand is lifted high; the LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!'
I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done." ~ Psalm 118:15-17 (NIV)

The psalmist rejoices in the victory that God gives us, over our enemies, in perilous trials on Earth, and ultimately in salvation as He brings us to live with Him forever, in victory over death.

When Jesus knows that He is heading to His crucifixion and tells His disciples that His end on Earth is coming, He tells them that He already has victory.

"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” ~ John 16:33 (NLT)

Jesus' victory is here on Earth, over His enemies who sought to conquer Him, and even more so, over death itself when He resurrects Himself to His eternal reign in Heaven.

Jesus, our King and our Savior, has victory over every aspect of Earth, over its trials and perils and over the sin and death that Satan brought to it.

Satan loses on every count, and Jesus gives his victory to us, just as God has promised.

~ Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem and all of Israel and all her neighbors and praying for everyone to receive the victory that God already gave us in Jesus! In Your Name, Jesus. Amen.

Julie

10/30/2023

"And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth." ~ John 17:3 (NLT)

When Jesus prayed for Himself at the Last Supper, just before He and His disciples left the Upper Room and went to the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked God to glorify His Son for the sake of glorifying Himself.

Jesus had accomplished His purpose on Earth up to the point of being betrayed: He came to Earth to bring eternal life to all who believed in Him.

Jesus makes explicit the one and only way to have eternal life: to know God, the Father in Heaven, the one and only true God and to know Jesus, His Son, whom He sent to Earth.

When He spoke with Nicodemus, the Pharisee who wanted to believe in Him, Jesus told him exactly who He was and why God sent Him to Earth.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." ~ John 3:16 (NIV)

Jesus' most famous saying is also the strongest declaration possible of God's Love for man.

God gave His one and only Son as a living sacrifice for the sole purpose of bringing people to salvation, to live with God forever.

Any person who believes in Jesus as the Son of God will join Him and Father God in Heaven forever and will not die in the eternal punishment of Hell.

John the Baptist testifies that Jesus is the Son of God and that His true purpose is to bring people eternal life with Him.

"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them." ~ John 3:36 (NIV)

John the Baptist, true to form, speaks the truth about Jesus as the Son of God, and he also warns that those who reject Jesus will suffer the wrath of God.

Jesus alone gives people the saving gift of eternal life with God, and people who reject Jesus as the Son of God will die and be damned to Hell for eternity.

Jesus wants us to live with Him and God for eternity, just as He returned to God after his crucifixion. He gave His life as a sacrifice for us, and He only asks us to believe in Him.

~ Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem and all of Israel and all her neighbors and praying that everyone believes in Jesus so they can live with Him forever. In Your Name, Jesus. Amen.

Julie

10/30/2023

"Nehemiah said, 'Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.'” ~ Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV)

When Ezra read the Book of the Law of Moses to the people of Israel and they understood God's Law for them, the people wept at their own sins. Feeling the weight of their own separation from God, deep sorrow overtook them, as it so often does.

But Nehemiah taught the people further. He told the people to enjoy the celebration of the Festival of Tents, or the Feast of Tabernacles, as the Holy days that they are and to take care of the poor who had nothing to eat while they were at it.

He encouraged them that the joy of the Lord is their strength. God wants us to know His joy that is His very nature, especially when we repent and turn our ways back to Him.

God wants us to rejoice in our understanding of Him and in our choice to be close to Him. His joy becomes our joy as we turn to Him.

The strength that He gives us in His joy is an all-encompassing refuge, a fortress or stronghold of safety and protection. Safe and secure in Him, we grow in strength, as well as in joy.

"You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." ~ Psalm 16:11 (NIV)

In Psalm 16, King David sings of the joy that God fills him with as He guides him through life. As he chooses to live securely in God's Will, King David knows that God gives him eternal life and eternal joy with Him.

Jesus goes even further when He tells us to rejoice when we choose Him over the ways of this world.

"Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets." ~ Luke 6:23 (NIV)

Jesus tells us to leap for joy when people hate and revile and exclude us for following Him, for His sake, because Heaven's reward for us is great.

Jesus says that people treated His prophets the same way in ancient times. God is watching over us and still, to this day, gives us His great joy for staying close to Him,

God's joy is our strength, and we find our joy in Him.

~ Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem and all of Israel and all her neighbors and for the joy that God so willingly gives us as we turn to Him. In Your Name, Jesus. Amen.

Julie

10/29/2023

"When Isaac planted his crops that year, he harvested a hundred times more grain than he planted, for the LORD blessed him." ~ Genesis 26:12 (NLT)

From the very beginning of the Bible, in Genesis, God tells us of His promise that we shall reap a 100-fold harvest when we sow according to His Will for us.

Isaac, Abraham's son, obeyed God when He told him to settle in the land of Gerar in the midst of a famine. God told Isaac not to leave to go to Egypt but to stay so He could bless him as He had promised to Abraham.

Because Abraham had first obeyed God, and then Isaac did, God's blessing became real.

Isaac's harvest was 100 times greater than what he planted. The harvest is the fulfillment of God's promise and the manifestation of God's blessing to him.

"And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life." ~ Matthew 19:29 (NLT)

Jesus Himself gives us this promise again. He declares that everyone who has sacrificed their own comfort, their own homes and relationships with family, even, to follow Him, will receive that 100-fold blessing in return, and more importantly, will receive eternal life with Him.

Jesus declared this same promise when He was preaching to a crowd.

"'Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop that was a hundred times as much as had been planted!' When he had said this, he called out, 'Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.'” ~ Luke 8:8 (NLT)

Jesus tells us that good soil produces 100 times more in harvest than what we plant. That good soil is in our hearts as we hear the Word of God and nurture it, let it grow, and watch it multiply in what we give to the world around us.

Jesus emphasizes the importance of His point by proclaiming that anyone who can hear His words must listen and understand.

Jesus is asking for more than just growing wisdom in us. He is asking us to become an active and productive person in the Kingdom of God.

~ Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem and all of Israel and all her neighbors and praying for the blessing of the 100-fold return on your obedience to God's Will to show that His promises are real. In Your Name, Jesus. Amen.

Julie

10/29/2023

"Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” ~ John 3:3 (NIV)

Jesus declares to Nicodemus that when we are born again, through baptism in water and the fire of Holy Spirit, by our faith in Jesus, we are born again in Him, in God.

By being born again into the spirit of God through our faith in Jesus, we are born into the Kingdom of God, which then becomes our new reality.

Jesus makes this truth clear in His explanation to Nicodemus: "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." ~ John 3:6 (NIV)

When God gives birth, or rebirth, to you in His Spirit, He is giving new birth to your eternal spirit, and He brings your eternal spirit into His Kingdom.

"For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." ~ 1 Peter 1:23 (NIV)

In his first letter, Peter tells us that we have been born again, not in our body in this world, but this time in the spirit of God. What would perish before is now imperishable, eternal by its very nature.

Whoever has been born again in the Spirit of God will not die but will live forever. With God, in His Kingdom.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

Paul, in his second letter to the church at Corinth, proclaims God's truth: that anyone born again in God, by faith in Jesus Christ, has already become a new creation, a totally new person, in Him.

Paul celebrates this rebirth and rejoices in the fact that the old creation, the merely mortal person doomed to die without God, outside of His Heavenly Kingdom, is already gone.

This rebirth in Jesus is complete as soon as it happens.

Be made new in Jesus and live with Him in the Kingdom of God forever.

~ Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem and all of Israel and all her neighbors and praying for all to be reborn in God through faith in Jesus! In Your Name, Jesus. Amen.

Julie

10/29/2023

"Obey the Lord by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared." ~ Jeremiah 38:20 (NIV)

When Jeremiah was tasked with giving King Zedekiah his prophecy, he urged the king to obey the Lord specifically in his warnings.

Jeremiah gave the king the real, and urgent, reasons that God required his obedience: so that things would go well for him and so his life would be saved.

God wants our obedience to Him for the very same reasons: so that things will go well for us and our lives will be saved.

In other translations of the verse, Jeremiah uses the word "soul," meaning that the King's eternal life would be saved.

Jesus, in response to an interruption for His family as He speaks at the temple, asks who His family is. He declares succinctly:

"For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” ~ Matthew 12:50 (NIV)

This declaration by Jesus is not merely words; He truly is telling us that obedience to God is how we become family to Him.

Doing the will of God, rather than our own will, unites us with God and, simultaneously, with Jesus. This unity with God is, of course, for all eternity and cannot be broken.

"And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love." ~ 2 John 1:6 (NIV)

In his second letter, John tells us that love and obedience go together. Acting in obedience to God is more than showing our love for Him; our obedience actually is our love for Him.

Our love is obedience to Him.

John explains further that God commands us to walk in this love for Him, which is to walk in obedience to Him. This command of God's has been given to us from the beginning, all the way back to Adam in Genesis.

Jesus Himself reminds us that God's command for obedience has not changed. His apostles do the same.

~ Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem and all of Israel and all her neighbors and praying that our love for God brings us all into obedience to Him. In Your Name, Jesus. Amen.

Julie

10/29/2023

"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." ~ James 4:7 (NIV)

God calls us to surrender to Him in every way so that He can direct our paths. By following God's Will for our lives, rather than our own will, we join Him in His plans for us.

In his letter, James commands us to submit ourselves, and our will, to God as a way to receive God's great gift of Grace. When we surrender to God in total submission, we can simply resist the devil, by not following his opposing will for us, and the devil will have to flee. God's protection in His Grace for us is that complete.

The devil's plan for us can never compete with God's plan for us, so staying in the Will of God is key to not being sidetracked or sidelined by the devil ~ ever.

"I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. And I know His commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say.” ~ John 12:49-50 (NLT)

Shortly before the Last Supper, Jesus tells us that even He surrenders entirely to Father God in Heaven, down to His very words. Jesus doesn't say anything unless God has told Him exactly what to say.

Jesus, in all His perfection, is a perfect example of total surrender to God. In being that perfect example, He also is a perfect example to us for how He wants us to surrender our will to God.

Jesus is speaking directly to us when He further explains that surrender to God leads to eternal life with Him.

God's perfect Will for us is to join Him in Heaven, and in the New Jerusalem on the New Earth, for all of eternity. Surrender to God is the only way we make it all the way to eternity with Him.

Surrendering to God gives Satan no room to hold any sway over us. And it's important to remember that the only reason Satan interferes with any person's will is to steal eternal life away from them.

Jesus, in giving us the clear example of His own surrender to His Father, is giving us the way to God and Heaven forever.

"Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter." ~ Matthew 7:21 (NLT)

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus clarifies that not everyone who comes to Him, and not even everyone who has done work for Him, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

He warns clearly that only the people who do the Will of God will enter His Kingdom.

Jesus came to Earth and gave His life for us for this one purpose: to be the way and the truth and the life for all who would follow Him. He gives us the way to Heaven, by fulfilling the truth of God's Word, so that we can live with Him, the Living God, forever in Heaven.

Jesus wants us to learn and also heed what He tells us. Every word from His mouth is truth, God's truth, and He gives it to us so we can follow it.

Surrender to God is the only way we leave the fatal path of our own will to follow the eternal path of God's Will for our soul and our eternal life with Him.

Ask Jesus to help you surrender your will to Him entirely, and He will help you do it.

~ Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem and all of Israel and all her neighbors, knowing that as we surrender to God, He gives us everything. In Your Name, Jesus. Amen.

Julie

10/28/2023

Everlasting Life!

"And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." ~ John 6:40 (NKJV)

Jesus came to Earth, at the will of His Father in Heaven, to bring us into eternal life with Him.

What does it take to live eternally with Jesus?

In His own words, Jesus says that we must believe in Him.

"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will sn**ch them out of my hand." ~ John 10:28 (NIV)

As Jesus tells a crowd that His believers belong to Him, he states clearly that they will never die. This promise is His promise of eternal life, of living with Him forever.

Since God has declared that those who believe in Jesus will spend eternity with Him, no one can steal them away from Him. This declaration is another promise from God.

Jesus makes His promise again when He assures a questioning crowd that He is the Son of God.

"'I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.'" ~ John 5:24 (NLT)

We come to Jesus for all of eternity simply by believing in Him. In His great mercy and goodness, He forgives us our sins. Instead of condemning us to death in the final judgment, He gives us His gift of eternal life with Him.

Jesus confirms that He will never judge us, and that He has already given His gift of eternal life because we believe in Him. There's no suspense or ambiguity in the final outcome for true believers in Christ.

Everlasting life is what He gives to us!

~ Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem and all of Israel and all her neighbors and for all people to come to Him to receive His gift of everlasting life with Him! In Your Name, Jesus. Amen.

Julie

10/28/2023

"Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” ~ Luke 2:14 (NKJV)

A multitude of angels suddenly appeared one night and announced the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem to shepherds in the fields.

The glory of the Lord that was shining brightly around the angels, and that made them fearsome to the shepherds, is that great, shining, pure light that comes from God and radiates everywhere He is.

His glory encompasses all that He is, all of His Godly attributes, and shines forth to all who observe Him.

His Glory is His magnificence, too great for words to describe.

The glory that goes to God is all the awestruck honor and declaration of Him as God that must come from us in return. His glory is His great light shining to and back through us as we turn our attention to Him, glory that is too great to go anywhere but back to Him.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." ~ Psalm 19:1 (NIV)

Just by looking up to the sky, we see His glory in His creation. The sun, the stars, and all of Heaven get their fiercely shining light, and their magnificence, from Him.

All the work of His creation announces His glory. It's impossible to miss it.

When God gives the Book of Revelation to John in a vision on the island of Patmos, He shows John the eternal city of the New Jerusalem.

"The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light." ~ Revelation 21:23 (NKJV)

In His new creation of the new heaven and the new Earth, God no longer uses the sun and stars to give us light. He gives us His glory, His light, directly at that point, as He lives among us.

Jesus, the Lord God Almighty, who was, is, and is to come, gives us His light, with no need for the sun. His glory, His magnificent radiance, is all we need, and He lights up the entire world.

It is His glory, His light, truly, that gives us eternal life with Him, and we inhabit bodies filled with His glory forever.

For that light, and in that great and glorious light, we give Him and Him alone all the glory, all the highest praise we have.

Glory to God in the Highest!

~ Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem and all of Israel and all her neighbors, and for all Glory to go to God and not to man or woman for any reason. In Your Name, Jesus. Amen.

Julie

10/28/2023

I am the King!

"Pilate therefore said to Him, 'Are You a king then?' Jesus answered, 'You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.'" ~ John 18:37 (NKJV)

Jesus is the King, the one and only King of the earth, the universe, and all creation. Creation is His, and He made it.

Even as He was approaching His death on the cross, those who were not following Him knew they were hearing truth. Truth from God is unmistakable.

Isaiah had already told the world that Jesus would come, and that He is King of this world and His people.

"Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.'" ~ Isaiah 44:6 (NKJV)

Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the one and only true God.

He is the only one who give us life, both here on Earth and afterwards, in Heaven.

"Jesus told her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.'" ~ John 11:25 (NLT)

Jesus, the Lord, our God, raised Himself up from death after His crucifixion, and His promise to us is to raise us up, also, to live with Him forever.

He is calling to you to believe in Him, to say, "Yes!" to Him, so you can join Him in His resurrection.

~Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem and all of Israel and all her neighbors, and for people everywhere to say, "Yes!" to Jesus, our King. In Your Name, Jesus. Amen.

Julie

10/27/2023

~ A young neighbor of mine asked me to write posts about Jesus and the Bible as we talked earnestly about what God wants for her.

Here are simple posts on Bible verses, meant to encourage and inspire, and to fill your heart with the Love of Jesus and His Holy Spirit that calls us to God and His Peace and His Favor forever.

May any one verse of the Bible be just the beginning of a lifetime of deeper and deeper study of God's Love for you in everything He is and everything He is calling you to.

~ Praying for Jesus to lead you in everything you do!

Julie

10/27/2023

"And through Him everyone who believes [who acknowledges Jesus as Lord and Savior and follows Him] is justified and declared free of guilt from all things, from which you could not be justified and freed of guilt through the Law of Moses." ~ Acts 13:39 (Amplified Bible)

Jesus justifies us before God, which means that He declares us innocent of all guilt and steeped in the righteousness of God ~ not through anything we could possibly do or offer to God, but through His own goodness, through His vouching for us as He replaces our sins with Himself.

This term, justification, is used in a courtroom context, when we stand before God in his Holy court and He pronounces us redeemed, innocent, and not condemned, guilty.

Let me fill you in on a secret that is only known to people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior: Jesus always pronounces people who accept Him as Lord innocent.

He always takes the blame, the sin, and the conviction that happened on the cross in place of our own guilt.

He never leaves out anyone who truly believes in Him and who follows His commandments. He never leaves anyone who truly follows Him to take the blame.

"God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God." ~ Ephesians 2:8 (NLT)

By grace alone. Through faith alone. In Christ alone.

God's great mercy and overflowing grace, His gift to us, is the only way this release from sin happens. His grace, His very goodness, grants us our innocence.

He grants us our innocence only because we believe in Jesus, His only begotten Son, whom He sent to us to save us from our sins.

Only Jesus can do this for us. Only Jesus can grant us our innocence because only Jesus was crucified for us, in our place, because of our sins.

God is great. All the time.

"Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us." ~ Romans 5:1 (NLT)

When we are declared innocent of all sins by God, because of His goodness in Jesus, who stands in our place for sins we have done, we also enter our Peace with God.

That Peace is the Peace that only Jesus can give, and He give us that Peace freely.

The same Bible verse translated in the Amplified Bible says it clearly:

"Therefore, since we have been justified [that is, acquitted of sin, declared blameless before God] by faith, [let us grasp the fact that] we have peace with God [and the joy of reconciliation with Him] through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed)." ~ Romans 5:1 (Amplified Bible)

Remember that God and Jesus always give us their gift of Peace with them. That is, Peace in them and with them. Peace forever with them.

God is granting us our innocence and that total state of Peace with Him so we can come to Him, stand before Him without judgment, and live with Him forever, in Heaven and then in the New Jerusalem.

Come, and give your life to Jesus, so you can live with Him forever.

Sing Hallelujah! Great praises to God! Amen.

~ Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem and all of Israel and all her neighbors, yes, for all the world in these troubled times, and praying that people everywhere give their lives to Jesus to live with Him forever! In Your Name, Jesus. Amen.

Julie

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