27 Writings of the New Testament
First 5 the story of Jesus and friends.
Of 13 that by Paul were sent,
9 writ to places and 4 writ to people.
Then 9 other letters, the end.
Jeremiah 9:23-24
Hear what Yahweh says,
“The wise should not boast in their wisdom
Nor the mighty boast in their strength,
Nor the wealthy boast in their riches.
But let boasters boast only in this,
{to them it has been given} They know and trust me.
They know that I am Yahweh and I do what delights me in all the earth – I overflow my love, I bring justice, I execute righteousness.
I, Yahweh, have spoken.
Explanation for even the littlest ones:
Creator God wants to tell us something. He says that people should not think they are better than someone else because of what they own or what they have done.
One thing only makes us special or different than someone else and that one thing is a gift God Himself has given to us. The gift is that we get to know God. We get to know that our Creator God is Yahweh. We get to know and believe that He is our loving Father and Shepherd. We get to know that He is always doing his favorite things in the world around us.
And what are his favorite things to do? God loves to pours out His love and overflow it everywhere. He loves to take care of the sad and helpless. He loves to make beautiful good things where beautiful good things could never be.
This is what our Shepherd God says to us.
A Compiled Prayer May 2020
Inspired to encourage the hearts of Chelsea and Melody ❤ – May of 2020 (the year of the Great Panic)
Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vine, though the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will rejoice in Yahweh, I will take joy in the God of my salvation.1 Because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
Stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved,2 for thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, “I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit.”3 Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God himself will be with them as their God.4
{Yahweh says,} “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from our flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you.5 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ, in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, you also will be revealed with him in glory.6 You, O Yahweh, are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head.7
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer, lift the light of your face upon us, O Yahweh.8
Now to Him who is able to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.9
1 Hab 3:17-18
2 Phil 3:12 and 4:1
3 Is 57:15
4 Rev 21:3
5 Ezekiel 36:26-27
6 Col 3:3-4
7 Ps 3:3
8 Ps 4:1,6
9 Jude 24-25
ESV and NASB
Gospel for my kiddos from Ezekiel 36
The gosple is the good news which tells about everything God has done and is doing for us through Jesus Messiah by the power of His Spirit. My kiddos are small, 2 and 4, here is how I rehearse for them the Good News:
Everyone has a dirty dead stone heart. And when we come up to God, God sees the dirty heart and has to say to us, “Go away and die!” And we are sad, and God is sad, but God is perfect and holy and cannot be with death and dirtiness. But Jesus comes over to us and snatches up our dirty hearts and He goes away and dies for us and dies with our dirty hearts.
And then Jesus comes alive again!! But the dead dirty hearts stay dead. And Jesus brings us shiney new clean hearts. For Jesus IS our life, His own Spirit is within us! And when God sees us with our shiney clean Jesus-hearts He gets to say, “Hooray, my children!! I love you! Welcome home!” And we get to go to the big party in heaven that God will throw in honor of Jesus the Great King and we get to live in Jesus’s house which He’s getting ready for us right now!! Yay, Jesus!
Tucked away in the prophecies of Ezekiel are a few precious verses that tell twice of our salvation- the salvation that God has been working out according to His will since the beginning.
{God is speaking} Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.
Ezekiel 36:25-28
These words from Ezekiel, written to God’s people of Israel, fulfilled by Jesus Christ, now apply to God’s work of salvation which is given to the saints.
God says that He will sprinkle us with clean water so we will be clean -that is our baptism- wherein we acknowledge that we were untied to Christ in His death and brought to new life with His resurrection by the power of the Spirit. And when God cleans us we are clean forever and cannot become dirty or dead again.
Said another way. Our hearts are dead like stones which can do nothing. But God removes the stone hearts and places living hearts of flesh within us – that is Jesus who IS our life – by the indwelling of the Spirit. And gifted to our account is perfect obedience to Christ – that is faith in Him unto salvation – as well as the righteousness of Christ who obeyed perfectly in our place.
And so, as it was in the beginning, it is again, that we are God’s people and He is our God.
Except more-so, for God has now revealed how great and deep His love is, that He was willing to become as we are and He lived and died for us, wretched worthless creatures that we are, and with His resurrection He conquered sin and death and hell, promising the same for us. And now He has adopted us as His beloved children. To the praise of His great glory!
And I sit with my kiddos at the kitchen island with
3 cheerios and a little glass of lemon water
and we “Remember Jesus” and say to each other:
This is Jesus body/blood.
Jesus loves you,
Jesus died for you,
Jesus forgives you, Jude!
Hooray Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!
This is Jesus body/blood.
Jesus loves you,
Jesus died for you,
Jesus forgives you, Elanor!
Hooray Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!
This is Jesus body/blood.
Jesus loves you,
Jesus died for you,
Jesus forgives you, mama.
And my heart melts.
Hooray Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!
Everyday Scriptures 