Ask for the Ancient Paths

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:7,8

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

God is the genesis of Love.

“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light."

- Luke 16:8

"What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight."

- Luke 16:15

The result of obedience is peace.

- Elisabeth Elliot

“Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

Matthew 11:11

"For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 5:20

We love because He first loved us.

1 John Chapter 4

“Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."

Luke Chapter 6

There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’“ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

Matthew 21

Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets.

For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.

1 Corinthians 14

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council. A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

Acts 17:32ff

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel

after that time,” declares the Lord.

“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God, and they will be my people.

No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying,

‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me,

from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.

“For I will forgive their wickedness

and will remember their sins no more.”

Jeremiah 31

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."

Karl Marx

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 12:14

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Romans 12:18

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.

Philippians 2:14-15

A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.

Proverbs 19:11

See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

Heberews 12:15

"Offense keeps you in this mess; offenses are going to come, but do not let them into your heart."

I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn (strength) of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. God alone is my Rock and Refuge.

"When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His ways!

He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;
   never will I forsake you.”

• God brings Order from Chaos
• God is a Redeemer
• God brings Life from Death

We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

Now the Green Blade Riseth,

Author: John Macleod Campbell Crum, 1928

Now the green blade riseth, from the buried grain,

Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;

Love lives again, that with the dead has been:

Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

In the grave they laid Him, Love who had been slain,

Thinking that He never would awake again,

Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:

Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

Forth He came at Easter, like the risen grain,

Jesus who for three days in the grave had lain;

Quick from the dead the risen One is seen:

Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,

Jesus' touch can call us back to life again,

Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:

Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

"Fear not, for I am with you."

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. … The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

"Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood–I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people."

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Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. . . The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life."

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“This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying,

“This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

"The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.”"

"I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.""

"On his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written: King of kings and Lord of lords."

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him”

1 Corinthians 2:9

Everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church. Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.

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Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.

Since the children have flesh and blood, Jesus too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Hebrews 2:14,15

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From the journal of John Wesley, Sunday, January 25, 1736:

There was now an opportunity of trying whether they [the Moravian believers] were delivered from the Spirit of fear, as well as from that of pride, anger, and revenge.

In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the main-sail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up.

A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sung on.

I asked one of them afterwards, “Was you not afraid?”

He answered, “I thank God, no.”

I asked, “But were not your women and children afraid?”

He replied, mildly, “No; our women and children are not afraid to die.”

The Lord said to Samuel, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

The Healthy and Mature Prayer --

• Lord, help me to walk through this well as a Christian, so I can help others who later walk the same path.

 Jeremiah 6:16 --

• “Lord, which of these paths helps me to love you more?”

James 4 --

• You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

"Your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

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Wesley's Covenant Prayer:

I am no longer my own, but yours.

  Put me to what you will, rank me with who you will;

  put me to doing, put me to suffering;

  let me be employed for you or laid aside for you;

  exalted for you or brought low for you;

  let me be full, let me be empty;

  let me have all things, let me have nothing;

I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

How can a lemon help teach eternal lessons?

"Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."

Scriptures Referenced: 

• Luke 14
• Matthew 16
• Matthew 8
• Luke 12
• Philippians 2

"I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Scriptures Referenced:

• Matthew 8
• Matthew 16
• Luke 23
• Revelation 2, 20 and 21
• 1 Thessalonians 5
• John 13
• Matthew 5
• Luke 14
• Ephesians 6

"Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

Scriptures referenced:

• Matthew 16
• Hebrews 12
• James 1
• Hebrews 1

"If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you."

Scriptures Referenced:

• Acts 4
• Acts 5
• Matthew 12
• John 12
• John 14
• 2 Corinthians 4
• John 8
• Colossians 2

"Everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort."

Scriptures Referenced:

• 1 Corinthians 14
• Jeremiah 6
• Galatians 5
• Matthew 6
• Galatians 6

"Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son."

Scriptures Referenced:

• John 3
• Numbers 21

"I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."

Scriptures Referenced:

• Ezekiel 36
• Philippians 2
• 1 Peter 2
• Psalm 133
• Colossians 3
• John 17
• 1 John 4
• Galatians 5

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."

Scriptures Referenced:

• Colossians 2
• Titus 3
• Genesis 1
• Mark 12
• Deuteronomy 6
• Deuteronomy 7
• John 13
• John 17
• Ephesians 4
• Hebrews 4
• John 15
• Ephesians 5

"For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

Scriptures Referenced:

• 1 Timothy 4
• John 18
• Matthew 5
• Isaiah 53
• Isaiah 9
• Deuteronomy 18
• Jeremiah 31
• Ezekiel 36
• Exodus 19-24
• Mark 10
• John 12
• Mark 1
• Luke 19
• 1 Timothy 1
• John 10
• 1 John 3
• Hebrews 2
• 2 Peter 1

"Those who wait on the Lord are never put to shame."

Scriptures Referenced:

• Psalm 25
• Romans 10
• Psalm 23
• 2 Corinthians 4
• John 20

"I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say."

Scriptures Referenced:

• John 5
• John 12
• 1 Corinthians 2

"God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."

Scriptures Referenced:

• 2 Corinthians 4
• John 20:30-31
• Matthew 24
• John chapter 2
• Philippians 2
• Ezekiel 36
• Colossians 1
• Ephesians  3

"He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

Continuing the discussion about how Jesus is a good shepherd.

Scriptures Referenced:

• John 10
• Psalm 23

"The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Scriptures referenced: 

• Luke 19
• John 3
• Numbers 21
• Romans 6
• John 10

"This is what the Lord says:

Stand at the crossroads and look;
Ask for the ancient paths,
Ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
And you will find rest for your souls."

Scriptures Referenced:

• Jeremiah 6:16
• See also
  • John 10
  • Psalm 23
  • Luke 9:57-62