Word for the Weekend

1 Peter 1:7 --

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ

I went to a visitation yesterday. My best friend's (since forever) sister's husband died. He was 25; my age. He left behind many sad family members including a loving wife and one year old son. There were many people there to pay their respects and speak whatever they could think of to his wife.

When I stepped up, there was mutual understanding in both of our eyes of knowing each other most of our lives and never thinking we would be hugging through this occasion. Of course, I didn't know what to say. I mean, what do you say when something that tragic happens? It is the kind of pain that many people will live their whole lives and never experience.

What stunned me is that she said, "I'm praying for you." What I had gone through recently was hard but nothing as hard as she is going through now and will continue to feel. In her pain she was still thinking of others. I had to ask myself if I would have been the same way. I wondered how could someone who is going through what she is, be praying for anyone else?

She is going through a trial of faith just as Peter talked about in the verse above. She is being tried with fire, that is for sure. It is a time when most people would be questioning God and perhaps not even praying to Him out of their anger. But she was praying for me.

The verse goes on to say that the trial gives praise and honor and glory to Jesus. This woman made me give praise and honor and glory to Jesus that in her trial she is not only still praying but still thinking and praying for me. Isn't that like Jesus? While He was going through His trial on the cross, He was thinking of each and every one of us.

She can find peace in this trial of fire because it has given her the opportunity to show a little of Jesus' light to each person who came and hugged her or talked to her. It is through trials that Jesus works quietly calling more people to Him by us viewing a grieving widow and seeing the face of Christ.

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,

calling for you and for me;

see, on the portals he's waiting and watching,

watching for you and for me.

Come home, come home;

ye who are weary come home;

earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling,

O sinner, come home!

--Will Thompson

Word for the Weekend

I finished my study of the Harmony of the Gospels yesterday and today I begin looking at the Psalms in my quiet time. I wanted to share with you Psalm One.

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. 4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. 5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

I have shared the whole Psalm here but I'd like to look mostly at verses one through three. Verse one gives us a lesson in how to live. The first lesson is we will be blessed if we don't seek counsel, or advice, from the ungodly, or unbelievers. The opposite of seeking advice from unbelievers is seeking advice from believers. Thus, we need to be sure that whenever we are looking for advice on a life situation or problem we need to seek out those trusted believers in our lives who have made wise choices in their own life.

The second lesson verse one gives us is we will be blessed if we don't stand in the way of sinners. While I was seeking the counsel of the Holy Spirit on this line, I took it to mean we should not be around sinners. If we are around people who consistently do not follow the law of the we will soon begin to think it is not such a big deal for us to not follow what the Lord would have us to do.

The last lesson is is close company with the second. It tells us that we will be blessed if we don't sit in the seat of the scornful. The definition of scorn is open dislike or disrespect, according to the Webster Dictionary. This verse, to me, means we will be blessed if we are not disrespectful to others. If we are always complaining or talking about other people in a disrespectful way we are being scornful. Thus, we would be sitting in the seat of the scornful. No one wants to be around someone who acts in that way.

Looking ahead to verse two, we see that the blessed man delights in God's law and meditates, or thinks, on it all the time. He is someone who is always keeping in mind what God would have him to do.

Verse three gives us a view of what the blessed man's life looks like. He is someone who "brings forth fruit", or does great works for the Lord. Also, the verse tells us that, "his leaf also shall not wither," or he never gets tired of doing good works. Lastly, the verse tells us that the blessed man prospers in everything he does. He may not always have things go his way, but they always go God's way and something good comes from everything that God is in.

To sum the first part of this Psalm up, if we seek counsel from believers, keep company with believers, and keep a spirit of respectfulness we will be blessed. Likewise, if we also meditate on God's Word consistently, we will have good works and will not grow weary in those good works.

May Psalm One be like water for your tree and teach you how to live out your life as the Lord would have you to.

Word for the Weekend

Most people whether they be Christian or not have heard of the ten commandments and could even name a few. However, they may not know that Jesus gave us a new commandment that sums up all of the ten commandments. If we obey this one commandment Jesus gave, we will surely obey everything else.

Jesus said:

John 13:34 & 35: A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

John also later wrote about this commandment:

1 John 2:7-11: 7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. 8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. 9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. 10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. 11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.


Jesus told us that people will know that we believe Him and uphold His characteristics if we love our brother. The term "brother" in this verse basically means everyone. God's children should have love towards all people no matter what they have done. Jesus says to love as He has loved us. Jesus has loved us unconditionally and even laid down his life for us. That is the kind of love we are to have for our fellow people.

John goes on to say in 1 John that if you don't love, you are in darkness (or sin). He also says that the darkness can blind us and make us not know where we are going. If you don't love others and have that sin in your life we can be blinded to even more sins. For example, you have to examine why you may not have Christ's love for someone. Are you jealous of what they have? Are you conventing their possessions? Have they done something hurtful to you? Jesus tells us we have to forgive as He forgave us (Matt 6:12).

Sometimes it is very hard to love someone because they may have hurt us or hurt someone we love more than what would seem forgivable. When we feel like we can never forgive or never love someone we need to ask the Lord to help us love as He loves. Jesus can love through us when we find it difficult.

Remember, how do unbelievers know that we are Christians? It is because of our Christ-like love towards others.

Word for the Weekend

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.


Many will tell you that when it comes to going to Heaven when we die, there are endless possibilities you could do to get you there. It simply isn't true. The Bible tells us that believing on Jesus is the only way.


John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.


This verse in John tells us that God is the ONLY true one. Don't be deceived by those saying that good works or just having a good heart will get you into Heaven. You hear all the time, "He was a good man," or "She was so nice to everyone," echoing off funeral home walls. Being a good man or a nice woman isn't going to get you to Heaven.


Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;


I'm so thankful that it isn't by works that we get into Heaven. No one would be there if that were true. There isn't anything we can do on our own to gain favor with God.


Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;


No matter how great or small you think your wrongdoings are, the Bible says that we have all have sin in our lives. It also says that without Jesus the punishment of sin is death. Revelation tells us that that death is an eternal death, where we would experience separation from God and torment.


Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.


Those truths are why it is so important to realize and believe what Jesus has done for everyone. The next few verses express how God sent His Son to pay our price, our punishment. Instead of us being cast into that lake of fire as the verse talks about above, Jesus came to earth and was brutally killed and hung on a cross, died, and rose three days later so we could go to Heaven and live with Him.


Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.


It is God's will that every person on earth will believe on Him. He doesn't want anyone to have eternal separation from Him.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.


What do you do then? How do you believe and how do you receive everlasting life? The Bible tells us to tell Jesus, our Lord. Talk to Him in prayer and tell him how you understand everything He has done for you. Tell Him you don't want to be a slave to sin any longer and you want to live for Him. Ask Jesus to take your sin away.

Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

If you do pray and ask Jesus to forgive you, you will enter into Heaven when you die. It is never too late and never too early to start living a life lead by Jesus instead of the emptiness of the world.

If you have questions or need any help, please let me know. You can contact me through email at mrscouponlady@gmail.com or you may leave a comment and I will get back to you as quickly as I can.

Word for the Weekend

Luke 18:31-34
Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. 32 For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: 33 And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. 34 And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.

These passages are Jesus telling his disciples about what is about to happen to Him. The same passage appears in Matthew (20:17-19) and Mark (10:32-34) but they leave out something that Luke makes note of in the last verse in this passage; the fact that the disciples didn't understand what Jesus had just told them. Perhaps they thought Jesus was telling one of His parables and would explain later. Maybe they thought it would happen figuratively. Whatever they imagined, it was just something they understood that they would not understand at that moment.

Verse 34 also says something else--what Jesus was telling them about his death and resurrection was "hid" from them. They wouldn't have been able to understand no matter how bad they wanted to because God had hidden it from them.

Sometimes we don't understand why some things happen in our life. Well, remember that you are in good company! The disciples didn't understand either. When a love one dies, when we barely have enough food to eat, when we can't pay the bills, when ten zillion things seem to go wrong all in one day....we may ask God, "why did that have to happen to me?" We may never get the answer we are looking for here on earth, but we can take comfort in some simple truths from the Bible.

Jesus knows what it is like to feel forsaken. Matthew 27:46 says: " And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He took on all our sin and in doing so felt forsaken by His Father. When we feel forsaken we can pray to Jesus and trust that He knows exactly how we feel and loves us dearly.

Remember that all sufferings here on earth are only for a short period and as long as you have asked Jesus into your life you will have eternal glory in heaven.

2Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction which is but a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

In closing I wanted to share the words of an old hymn, "We'll understand it better by and by" written by Charles Albert Tindley.

We are tossed and driven on the restless sea of time;
somber skies and howling tempests oft succeed a bright sunshine;
in that land of perfect day, when the mists are rolled away,
we will understand it better by and by.

By and by, when the morning comes,
when the saints of God are gathered home,
we'll tell the story how we've overcome,
for we'll understand it better by and by.

We are often destitute of the things that life demands,
want of food and want of shelter, thirsty hills and barren lands;
we are trusting in the Lord, and according to God's word,
we will understand it better by and by.

Trials dark on every hand, and we cannot understand
all the ways of God would lead us to that blessed promised land;
but he guides us with his eye, and we'll follow till we die,
for we'll understand it better by and by.

Temptations, hidden snares often take us unawares,
and our hearts are made to bleed for a thoughtless word or deed;
and we wonder why the test when we try to do our best,
but we'll understand it better by and by.