Hope: To desire something with some confidence of fulfillment. A desire supported by some confidence in its fulfillment. A ground for expectation. To look forward. Expectation. Confidence. Anticipation. "Be joyful in hope..." Romans 12:12 "I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13 "..my hope is in you all day long." Psalm 25:5b
Friday, April 22, 2016
Hope In Prayer
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Seven Steps To Great Parenting
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Prayer Of Jesus - Disciplined Lifestyle
It was the eve of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, and trial. Lord Jesus knew ahead of time about His suffering, the weight of humanity’s sin, and the cross that He was to bear. He was overwhelmed with intense stress and turbulent emotions. He needed someone to talk to, or to pray with. Jesus asked God the Father if there was an alternative to His will, if there was another way to achieve salvation for mankind. The Father’s answer stated the obvious - Jesus is the only way to salvation.
How did Jesus pray?
Jesus had a discipline to His prayer. He prayed as was His custom. (Luke 22:39)
Jesus had a specific place for prayer– Mount Olives–away from distractions. (Luke 22:39)
Jesus prayed in solitude and in a group. (Luke 22:39-41)
Jesus prayed to resist temptation. (Luke 22:40)
Jesus was alert and cautious in prayer - watch and pray. (Luke 22:45-46)
Jesus had a posture of submission and surrender in prayer. (Luke 22:41)
Jesus prayed emotionally with sweat like drops of blood. (Luke 22:44)
Was Jesus’ prayer answered?
Angels from Heaven strengthened Jesus. God gave Jesus the fortitude to endure the suffering and the Cross. For this reason, we have salvation, forgiveness, healing, and deliverance in the name of Jesus. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved except for the name of Jesus.
How can we pray like Jesus?
Prayer ought to be a discipline that we develop in our lives, irrespective of our emotions and circumstances. If we find a specific place and time for prayer, it will help us stick to our prayer schedule and will also keep us away from distractions.
Prayer must be accompanied with the faith that the Father will hear us and that His will be accomplished in our lives. We should make the effort to be alert and watchful in prayer. Connect to God through prayer with your soul, spirit and body. We need to expect answers to our prayers. Beyond the pursuit of an answer, prayer is to find and know God. (Job 11:6-10, Deuteronomy 4:29)
Friday, April 15, 2016
A Few Thoughts From The Week
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Persistent, Persistent, Persistent
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Hannah's Prayer
What caused Hannah to pray?
Hannah was in great agony. In the Jewish culture, being barren was considered a great misfortune and a curse. Elkanah, Hannah’s husband, was compelled to marry Peninnah because of Hannah’s barrenness. Peninnah, who bore many children, teased and mocked Hannah. Hannah felt suffocated in pain and depression. In her anguish, she went to the temple to pray.
How did Hannah pray? (1 Samuel 1:10-18)
Hannah’s prayer was laden with emotion and fervent in spirit before God. She found solace from her pain and anguish when she prayed. Hannah spoke to God without any pretense – her emotions lay exposed, her heart was undistracted, her mind was focused, and her spirit was connected to God’s.
Hannah’s prayer started with a request for a child. However, by the end of her prayer, she made a commitment to give the child back to the Lord to serve Him. She went home with the belief that God had started work on her behalf and therefore she was happy and light hearted.
Did God answer Hannah’s prayer? (1 Samuel 1:20)
In due time, Hannah received her blessing. She bore a son who she called Samuel.
How can we pray like Hannah?
• Get emotional with God: Pray simple and heartfelt prayers to God.
• Focus in prayer: Redirect your emotions to focus in prayer; do not get distracted by your surroundings and negative voices.
• Let God’s Will be our will: Pray with utmost sincerity; then, our desires become aligned to the Will of God.
• Faith and Confidence: It is normal for prayers to begin on our knees in anguish and desperation, especially when we go through painful situations, like Hannah’s. However, our fellowship with God helps us to rise up with strength, comfort, and courage to face the situation.
Leave your prayer room with the confidence that God has started His work on your behalf.
Monday, April 11, 2016
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Saturday, April 09, 2016
Wednesday, April 06, 2016
Blessed Are You, O Lord - Book of Common Prayer
to you be praise and glory for ever.
As once you ransomed your people from Egypt
and led them to freedom in the promised land,
so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your risen Son.
May we, the first fruits of your new creation,
rejoice in this new day you have made,
and praise you for your mighty acts.
Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Monday, April 04, 2016
The Word Of God Is Powerful
Isaiah 55:9-11 NASB
Romans 12 - God's Word
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Follow Me
13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,”Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. 15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Mark 2:13-17 NIV
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Monday, March 28, 2016
Prayer - Life Changing Conversation
Excerpt from PRAYER by Timothy Keller
Reprinted by arrangement with DUTTON, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random
House Company. Copyright ©
Together
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Draw Near
Aristotle, for example, said that while it might be possible to venerate and appease the gods, actual intimate friendship with a god was impossible. The philosopher reasoned that friendship requires that both parties share much in common as equals. They must be alike. But since God is infinitely greater than human beings, “the possibility of friendship ceases.”
Now, however, we have the ultimate mediator and priest to end all priests (Heb 4:14 –15). He eliminates the gap so that we can know God as friend (cf. Ex 33:11). It is because the Son of God was “made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest” (Heb 2:17). And because “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but . . . has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin,” we are able to “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence” (Heb 4:15–16).
Here, then, is a claim that Aristotle—indeed, all the other philosophers and religious teachers of the world—would find outrageous. How could God be our intimate friend? How could we approach him with complete confidence? It is because God became like us, equally mortal and subject to suffering and death. He did it so we could be forgiven and justified by faith apart from our efforts and merits. That is why we can draw near.
Excerpt from PRAYER by Timothy Keller
Reprinted by arrangement with DUTTON, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random
House Company. Copyright © 2014 by Timothy Keller
Friday, March 25, 2016
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Prayer Timothy Keller Thoughts
Immediately after their Lord’s death, the disciples prepare for the future by being “constantly in prayer” together (Acts 1:14). All church gatherings are “devoted . . . to prayer” (Acts 2:42; 11:5; 12:5, 12).
The power of the Spirit descends on the early Christians in response to powerful prayer, and leaders are selected and appointed only with prayer. All Christians are expected to have a regular, faithful, devoted, fervent prayer life. In the book of Acts, prayer is one of the main signs that the Spirit has come into the heart through faith in Christ. The Spirit gives us the confidence and desire to pray to God and enables us to pray even when we don’t know what to say. Christians are taught that prayer should pervade their whole day and whole life—they should “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17).
Prayer is so great that wherever you look in the Bible, it is there. Why? Everywhere God is, prayer is. Since God is everywhere and infinitely great, prayer must be all-pervasive in our lives.
Excerpt from PRAYER by Timothy Keller
Reprinted by arrangement with DUTTON, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random House Company. Copyright © 2014 by Timothy Keller
John 20: 1-10 NIV - Easter
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
He Is Risen!
Monday, March 21, 2016
Christ Is Alive
Friday, March 18, 2016
Thursday, March 17, 2016
An Irish Blessing
May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light. May good luck pursue you each morning and night.
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Easter - Hope - Mark 16:1-8
Monday, March 14, 2016
Pray - We Must
Friday, March 11, 2016
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Tuesday, March 08, 2016
The Road To Recognition - Luke 24:13-35
Monday, March 07, 2016
Resurrection Quotes
“Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about.” N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
“Optimism hopes for the best without any guarantee of its arriving and is often no more than whistling in the dark. Christian hope, by contrast, is faith looking ahead to the fulfillment of the promises of God, as when the Anglican burial service inters the corpse 'in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.' Optimism is a wish without warrant; Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God's own commitment, that the best is yet to come.”
J.I. Packer
“For me the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in summoning the courage to say yes to the present risenness of Jesus Christ.” Brennan Manning, Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging
“I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.” Charles W. Colson
“A dead Christ I must do everything for; a living Christ does everything for me.” Andrew Murray, Jesus Himself
Sunday, March 06, 2016
Tuesday, March 01, 2016
I Peter I:3-5
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Monday, February 22, 2016
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Thursday, February 11, 2016
A Lented Follower of Jesus Christ
So I must say, I think lent is a little ridiculous. Actually, I think it is absolutely preposterous. Yes, I am aware that this is "out there" for some and may cause your heart to stir and may even lead you to become a little bothered. Good. Now that the blood is pumping and the mind is stirred please read on because I whole-heartedly believe in the deeper meaning of Lent and think that Lent is a lifestyle not a season and I desire to be a Lented Follower.
This Blog is about hope so I must explain myself a bit. It seems Lent was started with good intent and yet "the drift factor" has occurred. Lent seems to have been a time for people to draw near to God and dwell on God and His love, sacrifice and power as Easter Sunday approached. The conversations and discussions I have been involved in are about giving up Coke, electronic devices, chocolate or even a fav TV program or other trite aspects of life during the 40 days of Lent. in these cases "The drift" factor has definitely taken place and therefore I do not care for Lent. Well, I guess I do like Lent if we as followers of the Way would seek to live it daily. Not the practice of giving up Coke, electronic devices, a TV show or even a favorite candy bar, but Lent in the sense that we draw near to God, dwell on and seek to walk in God's love, sacrifice, grace, holiness, and power on a daily basis as we follow Jesus Christ. Lent is a seasonal practice for many Christians yet it needs to be a daily expression for all followers of Jesus Christ. I do know of followers who practice Lent in its full intent during the season, but I also know that they practice Lent in it's intent all of the time. So they are Lented followers (in it's full intent) all of the time. I mean they fast, pray, give, serve, read Scripture, love people, seek after God, struggle with God, love God, converse with God, are Kingdom oriented and seek to live in Christ 23/6 (No one is perfect).
So I say, "forget Lent, the season." Enjoy your Coke, enjoy your candy bar, enjoy the TV show, use the electronic device in Christ. "In Christ", if not in Christ then move away from these things. I mean, I like my Dr Pepper, but if I drink the Dr. as much as I would like to there would be so much more of me (weight) than there should be. Catch the meaning. It's not just about health by the way, it's about "In Christ" which is "For Christ" which is "About Christ" which is "Of Christ" and is Lent. The early Church had a mantra long before Lent came along, "Jesus Christ is Lord." They got Lent without Lent, because they walked in the power of God and gave themselves fully to God.
So let's get the lint out of our pockets, purses, pillow cases, dryer vents and socks and get the Lent out of our lives so the Christ of Lent, the Christ of hope can increase in our lives and we can then experience His power in and through us which will bring others to Him. After all, Lent is about focusing on God and when we really do that others will be drawn to Him.
Desiring To Be Lented Follower,
Steve Nethery
Bible Study That Makes Disciples
Bible Study and Bible Studies are not just about information. They are to be about transformation and leading people to follow Jesus Christ.
Bible Study that Makes Disciples
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Go Old School - Healthy Relationships
Go Old School - Healthy Relationships
Tuesday, February 09, 2016
Too Busy To Pray
sharpens another.
Prov. 27:17
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Sunday, January 03, 2016
If Only
Saturday, January 02, 2016
New Year Prayer/Poem
Friday, January 01, 2016
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Monday, December 14, 2015
Resolve
-
This post may seem long and yet it is only the beginning. Followers of Jesus Christ need to turn to God, worship Him - surrender to Him, see...










































