Smart Phones Not Needed

What are some things to keep in mind when you begin praying? The following website has made some good points and I have listed them below.   What Does the Bible Say About Prayer?

God may be urging us to take some particular action. But how are we to know? Here are some ways to judge our thoughts and ideas.

1. Listen to your conscience. Acts 24:16, Hebrews 13:18
2. Does your prayer line up with God's word? Will it interfere with God's love or Christian love for other people? Mathew 24:34-40
3. Would you be proud or ashamed if your actions were published on the front page of the newspaper? John 3:19-21
4. Make sure your motives are pure. Do not seek revenge. Mathew 5:3848, 1 Timothy 6:5,10

A few months ago, I wrote about a friend that would call me about her boyfriend who mistreated her. And she would ask me to pray for her about her situations with him. The problem with that though was that as a single woman she lived with him as his wife but not in a legal context. And he was not a Christain and he had a drinking problem. Is it any wonder that she had problems with him? It got so bad between them that she finally left him because he ended up "cheating" on her. Which made her hate him and she spued terrible things about him over the phone while talking to me Instead of just leaving him, repenting for her own sin and praying for him, well...revenge was clearly on her mind and she would pray for God to take his life. Not that I blame her for all of it, but she shouldn't have ever considered being with him in the first place.

That is what it means to not seek revenge. It belongs to God. Deuteronomy 32:35. In that verse, it says that he will repay those that deserve it in his time. And in the meantime, we need to make sure that we are not doing something that is against God's laws. Living with a man that is not a Christian and drinks? It is any wonder this woman was having problems with someone that mistreated her?

Also, consider these points from this site: Principles of Prayer from Luke 11 | Bible.org

1. Prayer is not for emergency use only. To bail us out of difficult situations or when we or someone we love is sick or dying.
2. It is for every day, moment by moment
3. It is the means to claim God's promises and know and adhering to his will.

If we go to God with the right attitude, he will be faithful to answer our prayers. As stated before. In his own time. His own way. In his own form. We need to accept the fact that he always knows what is best for us. Whether at times we like it or not. Like his ways or not. It is his will that counts just as when Jesus was in the garden on that fateful night. "Let this cup pass from me. However, not my will but your will be done." And God's will was done because Jesus knew what was in the best interest of the sinfulness of man. Our eternity was at stake and without his shed blood, we had no hope. Thank God that Jesus took it on even under the stress of that awful event. That because of him, we have life eternal. 

For more information on prayer please visit the two sites mentioned above. Coming tomorrow, more about prayer but under a little bit different heading about what is also involved. Stay tuned.


Thanks for coming by today. I pray God's richest blessing on this the Lords Day. Remember that is this the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it! Psalm 118:24

No Smart Phone Needed (part 2)

Prayer is a communication between us and our loving God. Designed by God to give us a way to truly interact with him. Praying can bring us strength, inner peace, and wisdom.

Jesus himself found it necessary to spend time with his Father and is our prime example. Mathew 14L23, 26L36, Mark 1:35, Luke 5:16 and others.

When he was praying to his Father in the garden before the Roman Soldiers came to arrest him, he actually sweated blood. Being under heavy stress for what he was about to go through he prayed, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass by, however, let it be your will and not mine."

And because it was God's will, Jesus went to Calvary to die for you and I. Therefore, we too must ask God's will in everything we ever ask of God.

 He does answer our prayer. But, any wise parent will not give his children everything they want because they become spoiled and often entitled and so it is with God. Sometimes we need to solve our own problems. We may need an adjustment in our own attitudes, make amends to someone that we have wronged, forgive someone that we need to forgive.

But what prayer is not, it is not a magical button that we push to try to get everything we want like the churches that teach the "name it claim it" kind of stuff. Nor it is a quick fix to get out of the problems we have ourselves created by our disobedience to God. Sometimes he wants us to learn something from the mistakes we have made. There are times we have to pay the consequences for our actions.


The answers from God, do not always come when we want them to or how we want them. God has our best interests at heart and he knows what we need, and when we need them answered and in what way we need them answered. But they do come. With an answer of yes, or no. In some way. In some form. At whatever time and in whatever way God gives them to us.

If you are waiting on God to answer your prayer, take heart. If you are serving him and have him as your Lord and Savior, his answer will come to you in a matter of time. He wants to fulfill his purpose in your life.

 If he is not your Lord and Savior, he does not listen to your prayer according to John 9:31. He only listens to those that who have asked him to their hearts and lives. And I urge you to do that now. Pray the prayer below. Pray it now to become a part of God's great kingdom. God loves you! Do it now.

I am so happy you have visited me today and hope this study on prayer has been helpful to you. But we are not done with it yet. Come back tomorrow for part 3 and in the meantime, stay blessed!!!!

Sources for today: Scripture and What Does the Bible Say About Prayer?

No Smart Phone Needed! (part one)

Have you ever wished your smartphone had a direct line to God so you could talk to him every day? And tell him all your troubles. I can tell you one better than that. You don't need a smartphone or any other kind of phone. You do have a direct line to him if you have been born again.

 I know that there are those that probably do not really know how to pray or perhaps think they don't. Sometimes we don't know what to pray. And so for the next few days, I will focus on prayer and how to call on God in different situations.

The very first thing to know is that God does not listen to the prayers of people that are unrepentant. He only listens to those that have repented and worship him. John 9:31.Those who are open to hearing his voice. The only exception is that he does hear the prayer of a sinner that asks God to forgive him and come into his life.

There are times in my life that I do not know how to pray. Especially when someone needs a prayer answered but cannot or does not want to give details about why they need it. And so the Lord's prayer is the best way for me to go in those situations. And Jesus taught us that prayer in Mathew 6:9-13.

One day one of Jesus's disciples said to him, Lord teach us to pray. Jesus said When you pray to say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be they name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the glory and the power forever. Amen. 

This prayer covers the basics of what we all need. First, it acknowledges God is our Father and how great he and his name is. Then we want his kingdom to come as he has promised us and we look forward to that time. We ask for his will to be done not only in our lives but those we are praying for as well. We ask for our daily needs to be met. We then ask him to forgive our sins as well as those that have sinned against us. We want him to keep us from all evil and away from anything that would tempt us to sin against him. And lastly, we acknowledge the fact that he is his kingdom and glory and is all-powerful forever.

 Sometimes we ourselves do not know exactly what we need. And sometimes others want us to pray for something, in particular, that may or may not be God's will and but we must always ask for God's will first. For example, I know a woman that is almost 70 years old that I know very well. She regularly asks me to pray for her and yet she has made some very bad choices in her life that she then needs God to get her out of. However, she keeps making the same choices over and over. She does love God, I do believe. But she allows temptation to get her into things she shouldn't And to be fair, she has come from a really sad background. But. I began just praying for God's will because I don't sometimes think she knows what she needs or what is best for her. or if it something she just wants. What she does need is to stop making those bad choices and make the right ones. That I do know. So it is better left up to God to pray his will as to opposed to what she thinks she needs because she goes back and forth in her decisons and can be very wishy-washy.

We all do make bad decisions for sure. We need to know what God's will is and stick with his plan for us. But sometimes we just do not know what to do or what to pray for. Sometimes we jump ahead of him thinking something is his will only to find out it wasn't and now we are in trouble. However, when we do that and confess it to him, he is always ready to help us, even though we may have to pay the consequences. He loves us in spite of ourselves and to him be the glory forever! Amen!

Thanks for coming by today. Please be a blessing to others

and may God bless you as

well! Be sure to come

back tomorrow!

More Q & A About the Disciples of Christ

In researching these facts about Jesus and his disciples, I have come across yet another unknown fact to me. Did you know that there was a man that replaced Judas Iscariot as an apostle after he died? The apostles and a group of believers had gathered together to pray according to Acts 1:12-26 one day. And the Apostle Peter stood up to tell them they needed to replace Judas. With someone that had been with them throughout the ministry of Jesus. Ultimately, a man named Matthias was the one that replaced Judas.

So who was he? What do we know of him?

Well, not much at all. In fact, practically nothing.

There have been various traditions that have been developed that may or may not fill in what his ministry was. One was that he evangelized in Ethiopia where he was martyred Another was that he went to Damascus and later died in Judea. Another says he spent most of his time in Jerusalem and died there. It is impossible to know what his ministry was because the bible does not mention him again.

Todays sources: Scripture and Who was Matthias in the Bible?

Another question I had was this: Were Mary and Martha and other women of the Bible considered to be disciples. And so I looked up the meaning of disciple.

It means: A  follower of Jesus while he was living.

Just a few facts:

 Websites I have looked at, say yes they were. We do know that Jesus allowed them to be taught right along with the men. Unlike most men, he spoke to them in public.Mary Magdalene traveled with a group of women that traveled with Jesus to various feasts.Never did he put any woman down in scripture. Even the prostitutes he encountered.Women consistently stayed with Jesus during his ministry. Throughout his agony and death and were the messengers that were sent from his empty grave to tell others that he was alive.

There are many other things that can be said of women of the bible. I especially loved some of the things that the following website has to say about this subject. Please feel free to go there for yourself.  How Jesus Discipled Women...... | CT Women | Christianity Today

Women of the bible-disciples? Indeed!

We women today were not among those women that actually lived in Jesus time. However, as we live our lives in this world we can still be disciples of him. In fact, we are called to be. Though he is not in a fleshly image now, he is still very much alive and working on our behalf. We should be doing the same for him. Are we? Or are we just existing, or working for ourselves to make our lives better and not caring about a sick and dying world. It is something for each of us to contemplate.


Thanks for coming by today. This ends our study on Christ's disciples. Please come back tomorrow and have a wonderful and blessed day!

Judas:After the Fact

Judas had betrayed Judas. He had received 30 pieces of silver from the chief priests and elders for it. He had made his choice and when he had carried it out he knew he had sinned, and betrayed innocent blood. Mathew 27:3. And the sad part of it was that it did not bring him to repentance.

 The money now meant nothing to him nor did his own life. Mathew 27:5 says that he threw the money into the temple, and went away and hanged himself.

But did he really? As with any event in life, you take a group of people that experience the same thing, and in seeing exactly the same events unfold, can sometimes see it from different perspectives. Or was there other parts that were left out in some of the scripture for some reason or another?

There are 2 accounts of what happened to Judas. In Mathew 27:5-7, it says simply that Judas threw the money into the temple and went away to hang himself. The chief priests could not return the money to the treasury, because according to their law, it was blood money. And so they used it to buy a potters field in which to bury foreigners.

However, in Acts 1:18, he used the money to purchase a field and he threw himself into it and his body burst open.

 And who bought the field? Judas or the chief priests?

Which account is correct? Could it be that perhaps some of each story is correct?

How it could have been is this, according to what I have found:

Mathews account says simply that Judas did hang himself. And that the chief priests purchased the potter's field with the blood money that Judas returned.  However, In Lukes account in Acts 1: his fell headlong into the field which he purchased.

 It could be that after he had hung himself, his decaying body could have broken the branch of the tree he was hanging from and he fell into the field causing his body to rupture. Acts 1:18-19. Note that Luke does not say that he died from the fall, only that his body fell.

How about the potter's field? Who really did purchase it?
Maybe Judas had begun buying it leading up to the days or weeks before his betrayal of Jesus Maybe, the transaction had not been completed and no money was yet paid for it. Maybe, he would have used that money to pay for the field. (my own thoughts) Maybe, once he had died, the chief priests completed his transaction of the field in his name.

Why could the accounts be so different? Maybe, Mathew's focus was more on his death, whiles Luke's was more on the horror of it. Maybe, maybe, maybe...on this side of heaven,k we will never know. But the way he died and that of who owned the field, is not what is important, though some skeptics would probably put their focus on that. (my thoughts)

The fact that this was predicted in the Old Testament was. Zechariah 11:12-13. And fulfilled when Judas betrayed Jesus Christ. It had to happen the way it did, to make the way of for the crucifixion of Christ. And the rest is biblical history.  Why? Because that was the way that God ordained from the beginning to save the world from our sin.

What we learn from it is that there are evil people in the world. They are out to destroy our belief in Christ and our testimonies. These are people that are going to hell because they are unrepentant for their sin. They do not believe they need a Savior, or some don't believe he even exists. Even though the devil had thought he had won when Jesus was crucified and buried, in reality, he had not. The whole thing was a lie made up by an enemy to turn people away from the truth. In the end, Jesus had power over death and it is his only because of his shed blood that we have the promise of heaven. And one day, satan will be cast into the lake of fire and will no longer have dominion over the earth or anything or anyone in it. Those of us that have confessed our sins and accepted him into our lives, will reign with him m forever. How awesome a day that will be!

Today's sources: Scripture, How did Judas die?, and Was Judas Iscariot forgiven / saved?


Thank you for your patience today while I have been trying to get this study finished and completed. I have to tell you that these last two days on this particular disciple, have been a real problem. Especially today. I have felt like it has been a real spiritual opposition from the devil to try to get me discouraged enough to give up on it. I am truly thankful to God that if I have learned anything over my 60 plus years, it has been to learn patience. That is the reason that I have not given up on it which only comes from God. I am not sure what exactly I will be writing on in tomorrows blog. I know there was one other thing about the disciples and how Mary applied to the subject, so that may be it. In the meantime friends, please have a blessed day and I hope you will be back again.

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Who Was Judas Iscariot? A Tratior

Judas had sold Jesus' life for 30 pieces of silver. In that day, it would have been worth about $20 per coin or $600 for the lot. It was perhaps a lot of money in that day and yet that was all the life of Jesus meant to him. In today's US economy it would be about a mere $20,400 according to  Here's How Much Judas' 30 Pieces Of Silver Worth In Today's Money - I'm A Useless Info Junkie

But who was Judas and what do we know about him? 
He was the son of Simon Iscariot and he followed the ministry of Christ during the 3 years that he lived with Jesus. He was one of the 12 original disciples called by Jesus and he was the treasurer of the group. (Gee, no surprise there. Is there?) 

The other disciples had no idea what Judas was really like. He was trusted. Else why would they have allowed him to be the treasurer?
Also, Jesus had selected him as well. Why would Jesus allow him to be one of them if he had known that Judas was anyone they could not trust?

Ah, but Jesus did know. He knew that Judas was evil and in John 6:70 called him a "devil." It came to him as no surprise just who Judas was. At the last supper, Jesus predicted that Judas would betray him with a kiss.  He said that whoever he gave the morsel of bread to, would be the one that betrayed him, and when he gave it to Judas and Judas took it, the devil entered into him. John 13:26-27

After that, Judas got up from the table and left. He was remorseful and took the silver back to the chief priests and elders. But then he took them to Jesus and did betray him with a kiss. So now they knew exactly who to kill. Judas had done what was predicted in Psalm 41:9. Judas was responsible for his actions and Jesus said in 
Mathew 26:24, that it would have been better for the man that betrayed him if he had never been born.

Sources in todays blog: Scripture Here's How Much Judas' 30 Pieces Of Silver Worth In Today's Money - I'm A Useless Info Junkie and Who was Judas Iscariot?

Judas went then and hanged himself. Mathew 27:5 However, other accounts of how Judas died are different. In tomorrows blog, we will look at those.

 And then what happened after that? Did they get someone to take his place? And what is this I read about Martha being a disciple of Jesus? Please come back.

 Thanks for coming by today Friends. Have a blessed day!

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Who Was Phillip? The Evangelist

The Apostle Phillip was one of the earliest followers of Jesus Christ and it is believed that might have been a disciple of John the Baptist because he lived in the same region that John preached.  According to Acts 6:3-7. he was one of 7 disciples that were chosen for a ministry by the brothers and sisters of the church. This ministry was to see to the needs of the poor and widows and may have been the beginning of what became the offices of the Decon of the Church.

He was noted for the fact that one day when Jesus had been followed by 5000 people while he was preaching and he asked where they could buy bread to feed them, Phillip answered that there was not enough to get the food they needed and that is when Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes so that there was much more then what was needed and the disciples gathered what was left into 12 baskets. 

He was an evangelist and according to Acts 21:8-9 had 7 unmarried daughters that had the gift of prophecy. They are nameless in scripture and there is no mention of any sons that he might have had and additionally no mention of a wife. It is thought that she may have been deceased by the writing of scripture.

Phillip was one of the disciples that witnessed Jesus' ascension into heaven after he had been crucified and risen from the grave. Acts 1:14.

One account on his death has it that traditionally speaking, Phillip died a natural death but another one says he was crucified.

(Today's sources include:)Scripture, What Do We Know about the Apostle Philip? - Disciples, Philip, Deacon and Evangelist, Acts 1 NIV - Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven - In my - Bible Gateway, The Apostle Philip Biography, Life and Deathand Daughters of Philip - All the Women of the Bible - Bible Gateway

The Apostle Phillip was one disciple that was into the ministry of Jesus Christ. Not only into being an evangelist and all that entails but also a minister of the people as well. Whether or not he died a natural death or was crucified or whatever else might have been the cause of his death, he was a servant of the Lords. Can we say we are servants of God's work ourselves? If we aren't we should be. And if we are, what can we do better to serve him? After all, as Christians, that is what we are called to do.



Thanks for coming by today Friends. Up tomorrow will we the last of the 12-Judas Iscariot. What else can we learn about him?  Have a blessed day and new week!