I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
    I would fly away and be at rest.
⁷ I would flee far away
    and stay in the desert;
⁸ I would hurry to my place of shelter,
    far from the tempest and storm.”

(Psalm 55:6-8 -- NIV)

Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. ¹³ The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing the trumpets.  The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets kept sounding. ¹⁴ So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp.  They did this for six days.
¹⁵ On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. ¹⁶ The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city

(Joshua 6:12-16 -- NIV)

The Sovereign Lord is my strength;  he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.

(Habakkuk 3:19 -- NIV)

I call to you, Lord, come quickly to me; hear me when I call to you.  ² May my prayer be set before you like incense;  may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

(Psalm 141:1-2 -- NIV)

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

(Isaiah 43:18 -- NIV)

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
¹⁹ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  ²⁰ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:  and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.  Amen."

(Matthew 28:18-20 -- KJV)

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

 

(Psalm 1:5-6 -- NIV)

 

 

What causes fights and quarrels among you?  Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill.  You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.  You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

(James 4:1-3 -- NIV)

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, ¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

(Habakkuk 3:17-18 -- NIV)

For you formed my inward parts;  you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

(Psalm 139:13 -- ESV)

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.

(Luke 6:41-42 -- ESV)

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."

(John 14:6 -- ESV)

-----------------

P.S. Not everyone
goes to
heaven.

The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.
(Proverbs 10:3 -- NIV)

The Lord says:  "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught."
(Isaiah 29:13 -- NIV)



He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:  'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.'"
(Mark 7:6 -- NIV)


 

Happy Valentine's Day . . .

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

(Ephesians 3:16-19 -- NIV)

Happy Ash Wednesday
. . .

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

(John 3:16 -- ESV)

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

(Psalm 139:13 -- ESV)

Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” ²⁹ And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me.  I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” ³⁰ And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day?  Is it my habit to treat you this way?”  And he said, “No.”
³¹ Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand.  And he bowed down and fell on his face.

(Numbers 22:28-31 -- ESV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²  He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

(John 1:1-3 -- ESV)

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. ⁸ For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

(Galatians 6:7-8 -- ESV)

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.

(Romans 16:17 -- KJV)

And God spoke all these words, saying,
² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
³ “You shall have no other gods before me.
⁴ “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
⁷ “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
¹² “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
¹³ “You shall not murder.
¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.
¹⁵ “You shall not steal.
¹⁶ “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”

(Exodus 20:1-17 -- ESV)

"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. ³⁰ And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

(Matthew 10:28-31 -- NIV)

There is a balm in Gilead,

To make the wounded whole;

There's power enough in heaven,

To cure a sin-sick soul.




(traditional Black-American spiritual)

----------------------

"Is there no balm in Gilead?  Is there no physician there?  Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?"
(Jeremiah 8:22 -- NIV)

"People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall."

(Thomas Merton)