#EVERYONE/ MY BROTHER IN CHRIST USE YOUR 5 STAR ARCHERS

[shadow-schemer]

me, Order Switching to William Tell whenever things get tight: Help me, father figure 😥😥😥

[dfroza]

some hearts are good.

and some are evil. and some evil masquerades as a counterfeit form of light.

but True Light comes from our Creator.

and we are each responsible for the lives we lead that flow from the inside out.

A set of lines from Today’s reading of the Scriptures in the closing chapter of the Letter of Galatians:

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

The Letter of Galatians, Chapter 6:4-5 (The Message)

Each person has his or her own burden to bear and story to write. Remember to share what you have with your mentor in the Word.

The Letter of Galatians, Chapter 6:5-6 (The Voice)

with the whole chapter in The Passion Translation:

My beloved friends, if you see a believer who is overtaken with a fault, the one who is in the Spirit should seek to restore him in the Spirit of gentleness. But keep watch over your own heart so that you won’t be tempted to exalt yourself over him. Love empowers us to fulfill the law of the Anointed One as we carry each other’s troubles. If you think you are somebody too important to stoop down to help another (when really you are not), you are living in deception.

Let everyone be devoted to fulfill the work God has given them to do with excellence, and their joy will be in doing what’s right and being themselves, and not in being affirmed by others. Every believer is ultimately responsible for his or her own conscience. And those who are taught the Word must share all good things with their teacher.

God will never be mocked! For what you plant will always be the very thing you harvest. The harvest you reap reveals the seed that you planted. If you plant the corrupt seeds of self-life into this natural realm, you can expect a harvest of corruption. If you plant the good seeds of Spirit-life you will reap beautiful fruits that grow from the everlasting life of the Spirit.

And don’t allow yourselves to be weary in planting good seeds, for the season of reaping the wonderful harvest you’ve planted is coming! Take advantage of every opportunity to be a blessing to others, especially to our brothers and sisters in the family of faith!

I’ve written this letter to you with my own handwriting—see how large I have to make the letters? All those who insist that you be circumcised are recruiting you so they can boast in their own achievement. They seek to avoid the persecution that comes with preaching the liberating message of the cross of Messiah! Not even those who are circumcised keep every detail of the written law. Yet they push you to be circumcised so that they can boast that you have become like them.

May my only boast be found in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In him I have been crucified to this natural realm; and the natural realm is dead to me and no longer dominates my life.

Whether a man is circumcised or uncircumcised is meaningless to me. What really matters is the transforming power of this new creation life. And all those who live in agreement with this standard will have true peace and God’s delight, for they are the Israel of God.

From now on, let no one cause me to suffer further, for I am carrying the very scars of our Lord Jesus in my body. Finally my beloved ones—may the wonderful grace of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, be flowing in your spirit. So shall it be!

In Messiah’s love,

Paul

The Letter of Galatians, Chapter 6 (The Passion Translation)

to be accompanied by these closing lines in The Message:

Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!

For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life!

The Letter of Galatians, Chapter 6:11-15 (The Message)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 4th chapter of the book of Jeremiah about repentance in Israel and planting seeds:

“If you want to come back, O Israel,

you must really come back to me.

You must get rid of your stinking sin paraphernalia

and not wander away from me anymore.

Then you can say words like, ‘As God lives . . . ’

and have them mean something true and just and right.

And the godless nations will get caught up in the blessing

and find something in Israel to write home about.”

* * *

Here’s another Message from God

to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:

“Plow your unplowed fields,

but then don’t plant weeds in the soil!

Yes, circumcise your lives for God’s sake.

Plow your unplowed hearts,

all you people of Judah and Jerusalem.

Prevent fire—the fire of my anger—

for once it starts it can’t be put out.

Your wicked ways

are fuel for the fire.

“Sound the alarm in Judah,

broadcast the news in Jerusalem.

Say, ‘Blow the ram’s horn trumpet through the land!’

Shout out—a bullhorn bellow!—

‘Close ranks!

Run for your lives to the shelters!’

Send up a flare warning Zion:

‘Not a minute to lose! Don’t sit on your hands!’

Disaster’s descending from the north. I set it off!

When it lands, it will shake the foundations.

Invaders have pounced like a lion from its cover,

ready to rip nations to shreds,

Leaving your land in wrack and ruin,

your cities in rubble, abandoned.

Dress in funereal black.

Weep and wail,

For God’s sledgehammer anger

has slammed into us head-on.

“When this happens”

—God’s Decree—

“King and princes will lose heart;

priests will be baffled and prophets stand dumbfounded.”

Then I said, “Alas, Master God!

You’ve fed lies to this people, this Jerusalem.

You assured them, ‘All is well, don’t worry,’

at the very moment when the sword was at their throats.”

* * *

At that time, this people, yes, this very Jerusalem,

will be told in plain words:

“The northern hordes are sweeping in

from the desert steppes—

A wind that’s up to no good, a gale-force wind.

I ordered this wind.

I’m pronouncing

my hurricane judgment on my people.”

Look at them! Like banks of storm clouds,

racing, tumbling, their chariots a tornado,

Their horses faster than eagles!

Woe to us! We’re done for!

Jerusalem! Scrub the evil from your lives

so you’ll be fit for salvation.

How much longer will you harbor

devious and malignant designs within you?

What’s this? A messenger from Dan?

Bad news from Ephraim’s hills!

Make the report public.

Broadcast the news to Jerusalem:

“Invaders from far off are

raising war cries against Judah’s towns.

They’re all over her, like a dog on a bone.

And why? Because she rebelled against me.”

God’s Decree.

“It’s the way you’ve lived

that’s brought all this on you.

The bitter taste is from your evil life.

That’s what’s piercing your heart.”

* * *

I’m doubled up with cramps in my belly—

a poker burns in my gut.

My insides are tearing me up,

never a moment’s peace.

The ram’s horn trumpet blast rings in my ears,

the signal for all-out war.

Disaster hard on the heels of disaster,

the whole country in ruins!

In one stroke my home is destroyed,

the walls flattened in the blink of an eye.

How long do I have to look at the warning flares,

listen to the siren of danger?

“What fools my people are!

They have no idea who I am.

A company of half-wits,

dopes and donkeys all!

Experts at evil

but klutzes at good.”

I looked at the earth—

it was back to pre-Genesis chaos and emptiness.

I looked at the skies,

and not a star to be seen.

I looked at the mountains—

they were trembling like aspen leaves,

And all the hills

rocking back and forth in the wind.

I looked—what’s this! Not a man or woman in sight,

and not a bird to be seen in the skies.

I looked—this can’t be! Every garden and orchard shriveled up.

All the towns were ghost towns.

And all this because of God,

because of the blazing anger of God.

Yes, this is God’s Word on the matter:

“The whole country will be laid waste—

still it won’t be the end of the world.

The earth will mourn

and the skies lament

Because I’ve given my word and won’t take it back.

I’ve decided and won’t change my mind.”

Someone shouts, “Horsemen and archers!”

and everybody runs for cover.

They hide in ditches,

they climb into caves.

The cities are emptied,

not a person left anywhere.

And you, what do you think you’re up to?

Dressing up in party clothes,

Decking yourselves out in jewelry,

putting on lipstick and rouge and mascara!

Your primping goes for nothing.

You’re not going to seduce anyone. They’re out to kill you!

And what’s that I hear? The cry of a woman in labor,

the screams of a mother giving birth to her firstborn.

It’s the cry of Daughter Zion, gasping for breath,

reaching out for help:

“Help, oh help me! I’m dying!

The killers are on me!”

The Book of Jeremiah, Chapter 4 (The Message)

A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures for Tuesday, August 17 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible along with Today’s Proverbs and Psalms

A post by John Parsons about a solid foundation of truth:

When you become alive to the truth that the LORD is your Rock, the very ground upon which you live, move, and have your being, then your steps are made sure, as it says, "The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast down: for the LORD holds his hand" (Psalm 37:23-24). When you are unsure of your way, when you walk in uncertainty, you are unsteady in your resolve and are tempted to regard your life as being without any solid foundation. As you commit your way to the LORD, your steps are made sure, for you are walking before his Presence, and therefore you are upheld by his power. [Hebrew for Christians]

8.16.21 • Facebook

Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research

August 17, 2021

Long Enough

“And the LORD spake unto me, saying, Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.” (Deuteronomy 2:2-3)

This was the second time God rebuked Israel for staying too long in one place. Here they were camped adjacent to the region controlled by the descendants of Esau and thus kinsmen of the Israelites, but God told them to go on north toward Canaan.

Long before, they had wanted to stay too long at Mount Sinai (same as Horeb) where God had given the law to Moses. Finally, “the LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount:...Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers” (Deuteronomy 1:6, 8).

It is possible for a Christian to become too satisfied with his level of attainment, when the Lord may well have something more for him to do. Possibly, like Israel at Sinai, we may be content to stay in a situation where we have seen God work in the past. Or, like Israel at Edom’s Mount Seir, we want to stay in what we think may be friendly surroundings, rather than venture into overtly enemy territory. Perhaps we have stayed long enough at a certain stage in our Christian growth or service, and God wants us to go further.

Paul wanted to continue preaching near his home in Asia, but God said for him to go on into Europe (Acts 16:6-10). Peter asked Jesus what John was going to do, but Jesus said, “What is that to thee? follow thou me” (John 21:22).

God may, indeed, want us to continue all of our lives right where He has placed us now, as far as location and position are concerned, but He does want us to go on further with Him. The last words written by Peter are profoundly important. “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). HMM

A tweet by illumiNations:

@IlluminationsBT: DID YOU KNOW...Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country in the world with over 800 distinct languages.

Many of those vital languages do not have ANY Scripture available to them, we're working to change that!

8.17.21 • 12:02pm • Twitter