Keep The Faith

There are a number of things said in the Bible that I've not really thought much about in the past. Recently I've started to wonder about a number of them and have desired to study them. One of them is water — or “living water” — as in the following scripture: Revelation 7:16–17 (LEB) They will not be hungry any longer or be thirsty any longer; nor will the sun ever beat down on them, nor any heat. Because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and will lead them to springs of living waters, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Revelation 7:16 | Revelation 7:17 Here are some interesting things I found out in my studies of water: From the “Bible Encyclopedia”: “The Greek philosophers believed water to be the original substance and all things were made from it. The Koran states, ‘From water we have made all things.’ In the story of t...

We all have a belief system. What I mean by this is that we all believe or trust a great many things to be true. You may have a certain faith you believe is the true religion; you go along with most if not all the doctrines which make up that religion. Even if you are agnostic, that is part of your belief system. There are many areas which make up our belief system; health, monetary, security, religion, probably others which I can't think of right now. In each of these areas, you believe that if you can only reach or maintain a place in each one, that your life will be as good as it can get. You may not have reached that perfect place yet but you still believe that if you ever get there, you will be happy; things will be good. I think that the hell talked about in the Bible is related to our belief system. If you and I were to compare our belief system with each other, we would most likely find areas where we don't agree. Aren't our actions, our decisions, governed to...

I was re-reading my last post “ More about God's new kingdom ” in the Romans chapter 2 part when something caught my eye. It was verse 7 which read, “On the one hand, he will give eternal life to those who look for glory, honor, and immortality based on their patient good work.” The word “ immortality ” just doesn't seem right to me; does a Christian seek immortality? I read this passage in “biblegateway.com” in a number of translations and most do have “immortality”. I looked at this passage in my “Ultimate Bible Study Suite; KJV Bible” on my Kindle and here is how it reads; “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality , eternal life”. I found that the Greek word translated “immortality” is ““aphtharsia {af-thar-see'-ah}” Definitions: incorruptibility; genitive unending existence; (figurative) genuineness: -immortality, incorruption, sincerity.” You know, I think there is a great misconception with what eternal li...

I want to expound more about my post “God Will Be All in All” . I believe we will all be there in God's new kingdom, the new heaven and earth, but fixed. I say fixed but it is that we will have been perfectly judged by God. We will now know that true self and be put in our rightful place; some inside the new city Jerusalem (the place of honor and respect) and the rest outside the city (the place of obscurity). Knowing that true self will grieve so many of us and is the scriptures saying “weeping and gnashing of teeth” ( Matthew 8:12 ; Matthew 13:50 ; ; Matthew 25:30 ). These scriptures also say that they will be thrown into “outer darkness.” The Greek word translated as darkness is “skotos {skot'-os}” which means shadiness, i.e. obscurity. Obscurity means the state of being unknown, inconspicuous, or unimportant. Can you see that this is describing those outside the city? I believe that “weeping and gnashing of teeth” is another way of saying to grieve bitterly just like...

In my previous post, “God Will BE All in All” , I talked about those people, the nations, living outside the new Holy city, Jerusalem. One of the groups are called “dogs”. I didn't know if this was a group of people or a reference to the actual animal, dog. Here is what I've found in my studies: To an Israelite, dogs were not well loved, and they were associated with evil and low status and unclean. In Jesus' time and before, the gentiles (non-Israelite) were called or referenced as dogs by the Jews. 11-3-15 - I am a gentile and knowing that I may be considered or called a dog by anyone, be it Jew or Muslim or anyone does not bother me. I am in God's eyes perfectly judged. I trust Him in His thoughts of me. I hope I have not built up more animosity towards the Jews by what I've said here. It is not my intention to do so. I only want to shed light on the "dogs" reference in Revelation.   I found the reference in the Bible where I remembered Jesu...

I believe that all peoples — even from the beginning of time — will be in God's new kingdom. And here is why. 🏙️ The New Jerusalem John’s description of the new kingdom, given to him by God through an angel ( Rev 1:1 ), is found in Revelation 21. He describes the holy city, the New Jerusalem — a massive city with a wall measuring 1,500 miles wide, 1,500 miles long, 1,500 miles tall, and 72 yards thick ( Rev 21:16–17 ). The city has twelve gates — three on each side ( Rev 21:12–13 ). 🚪 Inside and Outside the City Inside the city: The Lord God and the Lamb (Jesus/Yeshua) ( Rev 21:22 ) Those written in the Lamb’s book of life ( Rev 21:27 ) The bride, the wife of the Lamb ( Rev 21:9 ) God’s bond-servants ( Rev 22:3 ) Outside the city: “Dogs, sorcerers, immoral persons, murderers, idolaters, and all who love and practice lying” ( Rev 22:15 ) The nations ( Rev 21:24 ) I believe these descriptions refer to who they were on the old earth — not w...

I was awakened in a dream and felt the need to post this right away. I don't remember the specifics of the dream but the jest or meaning of it was quite clear. All that I have written in this blog includes me too; it is directed towards me as well. I have a tendency of writing as though these words are only for the reader, like I'm lord it over the reader. If it has been taken that way, I apologize. 

I’m having such a hard time with this post. I have argued within myself as to whether I should write this or not; for very good reasons which I will explain later. I feel a confirmation that Father God does want me to write this as I was led back to one of my first posts; the only one in the “ Stories to Encourage ” section. At the end I quoted from Psalm 8 verses 3-9. This very thing is what concerns me so; and is what I want to talk about here. Psalm 8:3-9 New International Version (NIV) 3  When I consider your heavens,      the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars,      which you have set in place, 4  what is mankind that you are mindful of them,      human beings that you care for them? [ a ] 5  You have made them [ b ]  a little lower than the angels [ c ]      and crowned them [ d ]  with glory and honor. 6  You made them rulers  over the wor...

There are moments when God’s humor slips quietly into our lives, catching us off guard and making us laugh right in the middle of our worries. This morning’s dream was one of those moments—a tender reminder that even in pain, the Father’s presence can be both comforting and delightfully unexpected. What began as a prayer about trust turned into a handshake from heaven, sealed not with divine thunder but with the soft touch of a little dog’s paws. I had a very funny dream last night—one of those half‑asleep, half‑awake moments. I was talking with Father God, something I’ve been doing a lot lately because of what’s going on with my back. As I’ve mentioned before, I have arthritis all down my spine. I also have spinal stenosis, where the spinal canal narrows and pinches the spinal cord around the L4–L5 area. From the MRI, it even looks like one of those vertebrae has deteriorated. On top of that, I deal with sciatica pain. I keep telling Father that I will trust Him with whatever ...

I’d like to finish my story about my accident; the one I told you about in the previous post. Back to the scene of the accident: The first highway patrolman who started pursuing the person who almost hit me never got a chance to catch that person. He heard the crash and turned around at his next available pass-through and came back to check on us to see if we were all OK; which we both were. More cops showed up very quickly. It was the second cop who recorded all our stories, even whatever the first cop had to say. The second cop was the one who gave us both tickets. I didn’t get mad or say derogatory things to him. I just told him my story as best I could. When I took out all the things I thought contributed to the accident, I was legally at fault; I failed to yield the right of way. I did not obey the law. And that was that. I had two options with my ticket. I could pay the ticket and this accident would stay in my driving history for a long time, or I could take a Driv...

Why do we judge something that we are not even a part of? It is hard enough to judge even if you are involved or if you are charged with the responsibility to judge.  All of us have this tendency to judge or form an opinion about who was right or wrong just by what we see in the news or read or hear from others. The only thing we do when we voice our opinions is to contribute to the unrest and fuel the hate. To give you an example of how our judgements can be faulty; have you ever watched a football game and thought a referee made a wrong call. From the angle of view that you saw on TV, there was no way that he was right. But as you saw the many different angles from other cameras, you came to agree with him; he judged correctly.   What I am referring to right now is what’s going on between black people and white cops and our judicial system. I live in Texas and the big news right now is about what happened to Sandra Bland, a black woman, and a white cop who th...