The Cornerstone

The Cornerstone is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All the other stones will be set in reference to this stone. This determines the position of the entire structure.

The Cornerstone, for those who believe in God. Romans 9;33 says, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and He who believes in Him will not be disappointed. 1 Peter 2-7-9, then, This precious value, then, is for you who believe, but for those who disbelieve. “The stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone.

Jesus is the cornerstone of everything, everything is connected to Him. Every trial, every challenge we go through in this life is preparing us to live in communion and connection with Him.

Will this Cornerstone be of Precious value to us, or will we stumble and fall.

Healed By Hurt

It has been said that the quality of your life is determined not just by who you are but by who you spend time with. Relationships matter. They are consequential and catalytic. There are no such things as a passive relationship. All relationships are purposeful – they either build you up or they tear you down.

This is why it’s important to figure out how to deal with the inevitable challenges that come with relationships. You can be sure there will be bitterness, unforgiveness, and the residue of resentment that comes with being connected with others.

However, when it comes to living offended, we have a choice in our response. Offense is not necessarily the result of a negative thin done to us, it’s an active choice we make. Painful things will happen to us, but we get to choose whether it turns into an offense that builds into resentment.

God, however, wants to heal past hurts, reconcile pain, and purify the offenses that contaminate our joy and steal our str. Satan would love for us to remain stuck in offense because it would ostracize us from others. Proverbs 19:11 makes it clear that wisdom creates patience. We are told that “ it is to our glory” if we choose to overlook an offense.

Solomon tells us wisdom is referring to a sign of our own growth and spiritual maturity. When we are mature in our faith, we can recognize the area of offense that needs to be healed.

Though it isn’t easy we must find a way to surrender our hurts and brokenness. This enables us to stop being dragged down by the past and enables us to leap into what God has for us in the future. It’s a process that occurs daily, as we resolve not to let our pain dictate our future and distract us from our main purpose in life.

Lay down your offenses and release the pain to receive God love your heart so desperately needs. Don’t let offenses and pain eat you from the inside out. Drop all your baggage at Jesus’s feet and heal the hurt.

Forgiving Past Your Feelings

When It comes to forgiving other people, we cannot always allow or feelings to drive out choices. Our feelings make great servants but terrible masters. If we don’t discover how to master our em, our emotions will end up mastering us.

The Scriptures are laced with instructions on forgiving others, to remain compassionate, and to be at peace with everything. But we don’t always feel like obeying these commands. Sometimes we’ve been brutally wounded and betrayed by others. So, how do we do it them.

It took me over 40 years to forgive my mother and 20 of that was after she had passed away. I had so much hate for her it was oozing out of me.

The keys is found in John 15: 1-5: it is impossible to release hurt, forgive others, and receive Christ’s love afresh in our hearts apart from His help. Knowing the truth about forgiveness does not equate to being empowered to forgive ourselves. We cannot construct, fabricate, or work up forgiveness for others in our own strength. This will lead us only to greater frustration and agitation when what we try to do doesn’t work. To truly experience forgiveness for others we must remind ourselves of God’s ability to forgive us.

Even the best intentions cannot meet the force that Unforgiveness. Presents. To forgive others the way God forgave us, we must be connected to Jesus, so we can obey His command. Or, as Jesus says we must remain in Him. We are not designed to forgive others independent of God. But if He can forgive the very people that crucified Him, then anything is possible.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are equipped, enabled, and empowered to forgive others, even when we don’t feel like it. As God’s power flows through our hearts are healed, our pain is eased, and the path of resistance is broken down . To those that have sinned against us, we can find peace. To those that have betrayed us, we can find joy. Remaining attached to Jesus and “abiding in the vine” will ensure that we produce great fruit.

So bring your offenses before God today. Pray for the people that have hurt you. Do your best to take a step towards forgiveness and watch God bring you freedom.

I have forgiven my mother for everything she had done to me, but I’m still working on trying to forget. Because of the physical harm, she has caused, the pain of certain ailments brought on by physical abuse, it is almost a trigger. And I need a little some time to process the physical ailments,

Sin And Physical Health Are Connected

Somethings just seem to go together. Peanut butter and jelly, milk and cookie. When things go together they usually make one of them better. There is nothing like a crunchy peanut butter and Smuckers strawberry jam sandwich. They are so good.

Throughout the old and New Testament in the Bible, there are two things that always go together! And that is forgiveness of sins and healing for the body. When you see one, you always see the other. They go together better than peanut butter and jelly and are part of the redemption in Christ.

So you may be asking yourself, where is it found in the Bible? Below are you sure couple of the many scriptures they showed the connection between forgiveness and fins and healing the body.

Bible Evidence

Psalm 103:3

“ he forgives all of my sins and heals all my diseases.”

1 Peter 2:24

“Who Him for our sins in Hid own body on the tree, that we, having died to sin, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed.”

The Man Jesus Forgave And Healed

And three of the four gospels, we read about a paralyzed man who had four crazy friends. My favorite account of the story is found in Mark 2. And the four friend arrived where Jesus was teaching, they found the building was full and there was no way to get their friend and to see Jesus. Instead of giving up and going home, they climbed on top of the house and began to make a hole in the roof to lower their friend down to the room where Jesus was sitting.

This is where the crazy comes in. Who does that? Apparently we’re friends in faith who will not be denied their friends healing.

Can you imagine the commotion this stirred right in the middle of Jesus’s sermon you look up and you see four guys ripping a hole in the roof and then lowering your friend into the room where Jesus was? Talk about faith that won’t quit.

Then Jesus gave a command that riled up the religious folk. Son, your sins are forgiven you.” The religious folk were furious because they did not believe that Jesus had the authority to forgive sins. They believe that Jesus could heal, but He did not have the authority to forgive.

Today, it is just the opposite. Most believe heal still forgives sins but does not heal.

But Jesus says something that day that forever tied His willingness to heal and to forgive.

Mark 2:9-12

“Which is easier, to say to this paralyzed man. Your sins are now forgiven, or take up your bed and walk? But to convince you that the Son of Man Have been given authority to forgive sins. I say to this man stand up, pick up your bed and walk home.” Immediately the man stood up on his feet in front of everyone and left went home.

Is It Easy To Receive Your Healing

In The passage above, Jesus has bound together forever His willingness and ability to heal and forgive everyone with overwhelming desire. It is as much His Will to heal you as it is His will to forgive you.. Which is easier? The answer is, they are both easy, because they are both included in Jesus will and desire for you which is seen in your redemption purchased in the atonement.

When this connoisseur made, and it goes from knowledge to belief, healing always comes and it comes easily. Take the time this week to meditate on Psalm 30, Psalm 103: 1-5, and 1 Peter 2:24. Also take a look at Mark chapter 2. How do you do, meditate on the connection between LA and forgiveness and also that it is easy and not hard or difficult to receive forgiveness and healing. I added some 30 in there because that is a healing scripture.

When I was diagnosed with cancer, I thought I was going to die. My prognosis was one year. That was 8 years ago. Through the people praying at my church and changing my lifestyle and diet. And praying like I’ve never prayed before. And asking him to forgive every sin I’d ever done. Three months later there was no sign I ever had cancer. It is possible to be healed you just have to do it God‘s way.

When We Suffer

A Biblical Perspective On Chronic Pain And Illness

Why we suffer may always remain a mystery on this side of eternity. However we can gain certain truths from God’s Word.

If God loves us so much, why do we suffer? Whether your a Christian or not, it’s a question that comes up repeatedly during times of illness and tragedy. In times of distress, we want to know that our suffering matters to God and that He cares about our pain.

Sometimes a fresh word May in fact be a timeless one. Truths that are timeless often need only the time brushed away in order to reveal the polished product that has shined the entire time.

Pastor TimHager asserts that we suffer because we live in a fallen world. When sin entered the world, death also entered and Chronic pain, illness, and disease are a form of death.

Despite this harsh reality, I urge anyone suffering to take their questions to God rather than allow them to become a wedge in their relationship with Him.

If we follow the example in Psalms, which says to cry out to God as though taking Him to task for our problems, those who persist in their conversation with Him, will eventually receive their answer and reinforce their faithfulness toward Him.

Suffering in many ways, remains a mystery, one that we will never fully understand on earth. We can however learn from God’s Word.

Suffering Produces Intimacy With God. – Job 42:5

  • Job endured unspeakable suffering, he said “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Intimacy with God is often born in the furnace of affliction. There’s an opening of the soul that happens during times of stress . During suffering, we experience God at a deep profound level.

Suffering Equips Us To Comfort Others. – 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

  • Suffering gives us compassion for others who are hurting, enabling us to help people more effectively. Sufferers want to be ministered to by people who have suffered,

People who suffer want people who have suffered to tell them there is hope. They are justifiably suspicious of people who appear to have lived a life of ease

Piper, John and Justin Taylor (Suffering and the Sovereignty of God)

Those who have suffered make the most effective comforters.

Suffering Refines Us. –Isaiah 48:10

Isaiah 48:10 says, “I have refined you, though not as silver, I have tested you in the fur of affliction.”

The meaning of this verse makes it clear that pain and suffering have a way of bringing our strengths and weaknesses to the surface. When the dross floats to the surface, God skims it off, He purifies and refines us to be the radiant bride of Christ we need to be at the end of days.

Suffering Produces Growth And Maturity. -James 1:2-4

  • If we turn toward God in our pain, He can use our suffering to mature our faith. We see this biblical truth illustrated through the persecuted church. After hearing the testimonies, few would deny that suffering produces beauty and maturity of spirit.

Suffering Conforms Us Into God’s Image. -Romans 8:28-29

  • We may be tent to read these verses to say that God will bring good out of everything. While He can and does redeem pain in our lives, these verses speak of being conformed to God’s image through our suffering.

Through horrendous experiences, God does incredible things. Simply put, when we seek God through His Word and prayer, we find Jesus. Remember, Jesus understands our pain because He too, suffered.

Psalm 22:1 reads “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? So far from the words of my groaning?“

Did God abandon His Son in His hour of suffering? We find the answer three days later. God raised Him from the dead. Because of this promise, we can have hope for our future.

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9