Foundations of My Faith

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

By Grace Through Faith

Ephesians 2:1) And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2) in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3) among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5) even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6) and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7) so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9) not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Sing to the Lord a New Song

Psalm 149:1) Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly!

2) Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!

3) Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!

4) For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.

5) Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds.

6) Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands,

7) to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples,

8) to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron,

9) to execute on them the judgment written! This is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Jesus Rejoices in the Father’s Will

Luke 10:21) In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 22) All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." 23) Then turning to the disciples he said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24) For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."

Proverbs 19:21

In You Do I Take Refuge

Psalm 7: A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.

1) O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,

2) lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.

3) O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,

4) if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,

5) let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah

6) Arise, O Lord, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.

7) Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high.

8) The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.

9) Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous— you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!

10) My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

11) God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.

12) If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow;

13) he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.

14) Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.

15) He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.

16) His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.

17) I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

The Parable of the Tenants

Matthew 21:33) "Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34) When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35) And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36) Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37) Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38) But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39) And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40) When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" 41) They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons."
42) Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures:
" ‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43) Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44) And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him."
45) When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46) And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.