The day with dianne Louise

43‭-‬47 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. Matthew 5:43‭-‬47 MSG https://bible.com/bible/97/mat.5.43-47.MSG I love how this version brings out the Importance of praying for our enemies. A very down to earth renditional.  Praise God for enemies! They cause us to seek God closely! May we wait for  godly response and not yiel...

44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Matthew 5:44 HCSB https://bible.com/bible/72/mat.5.44.HCSB Loving my enemies has not been easy. Yet, interceeding for them, and giving up my judgement of them has allowed me to love them as God loves them. God sees what has caught them, the stumbling blocks that the enemy of our souls has placed in their way, the injustices they have also endured. As I seek God on their behalf it is so easy to repent of my own opinions, and love as He loves. I can say, " Fsther forgive them, for they know not what they do"! Our enemies need us to seek God for them. We may be the ones given the task. Perhaps their way of asking for prayer is to attack us. Jesus knew His enemies were bound in religion, a nasty spirit. He could love them as He hung on the cross. He shed His blood for them. The least we can do is shed our flesh for them, forgive them and pray. Amen! A real enemy.

14 The Lord will fight for you; you must be quiet.”Exodus 14:14 HCSB https://bible.com/bible/72/exo.14.14.HCSB  God is good! Today I saw blessing. I made a new friend, a university professor who recently moved to my area. Her name is Elaine. She loves to play Mharjong, so do I. She also loves my art and is buying one of my paintings. I am so enjoying the people God is bringing into my life. How blessed am I! My studies are fantastic, I am meeting some excellent characters. Wow! My prayer life has gone to a new level. I am going places in intercession not gone before, and sensing the power of God all over my prayers. WOW! All this from being quiet and waiting. Thank You Lord!  SOLD!

14 The Lord will fight for you; you must be quiet.” Exodus 14:14 HCSB https://bible.com/bible/72/exo.14.14.HCSB Moses has just led 2,000,000 men, women, children and livestock out of bondage in Egypt. It was his first time leading so many. Imagine the noise! God had Moses lead them into a blind alley, so that He could display His glory to the people and Egypt. The above verse comes after the mumbling.  God had told Moses He would deliver them, He gave Moses the strategy, "Just lift your staff over the water so that the waters will part, and the people can go through on dry land. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so they will follow, but I will get the glory." God had already trained Moses in use of his staff when he went before Pharaoh.  He had not had training in shepherding 2m sheep, however he did receive training of shepherding sheep in the wilderness. Telling the people to be quiet and obey helped him and them. These words ring true today: be quiet, God will go b...

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts of the Apostles 1:8 NLT https://bible.com/bible/116/act.1.8.NLT The disciples did not know the power of which Jesus spoke, they had never encountered the Holy Spirit personally. They had seen Jesus work with power. I wonder if they thought it might be like that, or, remembering the sons of thunder wanting to call down fire on a city, I wonder if they were ready to act maturely this time. When the Holy Spirit did come it was in a way that would have been frightening: a powerful wind and fire on everyone's head. However, the result was just as Jesus intended. Peter's first preach won 3,000 converts. Peter and John saw a man healed at the temple.  Phillip was transported in the Spirit (I like that one- being a trecker). Then persecution started.  Stephen was stoned to deat...

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts of the Apostles 1:8 NLT https://bible.com/bible/116/act.1.8.NLT Whilst we Christians usually know this scripture, do we know what was said the verses before? Jesus had risen from the dead and was about to leave the earth and in verse 6 the disciples are still asking: " Lord, are you restoring the kingdom of Israel at this time?" The focus is still on being rid of the Romans and not on the wonderful deliverance that had just been wrought,  deliverance from the captivity of sin. Little did the disciples know, Israel would not be free for centuries to come. In fact worse was yet to come. Jesus had a plan for them to be dispersed from their beloved homeland, and take the message about Him to all the far flung places of the earth. This would come about in extreme persecutio...

37 He said to him: “Thou shalt love Yehovah [Messiah Pre-Incarnate] your Elohim (The Many Powered) [The Living Word of God] with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength”. 38 “This is the first and great commandment.” 39 “The second is like it: “Thou shalt love your neighbour as yourself” Matthew 22:37‭-‬39 NMV https://bible.com/bible/2135/mat.22.37-39.NMV The Pharisees had managed to warp even the scriptures about loving their neighbour. Jesus did not respect their ways or attitudes.  He confronted them. In Luke 10:29 an expert teacher of the law had asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbour?" The Jews had very strict rules about only associating with other Jews. They saw anyone else as unclean. Jesus answered the man with a parable, the Good Samaritan.  In this parable we see the good samaritan was one who had pity on a non-Jew by rescuing him from certain death, and paying for his care.  We must now consider who our neighbours are. Are they only the p...

37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. Matthew 22:37‭-‬38 NLT https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.22.37-38.NLT  Jesus spoke these words when questioned by the Pharisees after Jesus had successfully silenced the Saducees. They put forward an expert in the law, knowing if anyone could truck Jesus up he could. He couldn't. Not only did He answer perfectly He also questioned them with a harder question: What do you think about the Messiah? Whose Son is He? He went on to show them that although they claim that the Messiah is David's Son, David actually called Him Lord in Psalm 110:1. How can the Messiah be Son and Lord? Jesus asked in verse 45. They went away and did not try again. There is no one greater than God and Jesus was God in the flesh. There is no question too hard for God, He created all things and holds all things together. Did you know that the universe is 70%...