What The Bible Says about New Beginnings

 Tonight I want to talk about What The Bible Says about New Beginnings.  I want to start out with sharing a quote before going into the scriptures.

The quote I want to start out with says this: When God gives you a New Beginning, It Starts With An Ending. Be Thankful For Closed Doors. They Often Guide Us To The Right One. 

I want us to take a look at some scriptures tonight and the scriptures we are going to look at are 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17, Isaiah 43 verse 18-19, Isaiah 40 verse 31, 1 John 4 verse 18, 1 Peter 1 verse 3, Psalm 121 verse 1-8, Job 8 verse 7, Genesis 1 verse 1, Ezekiel 36 verse 26, Revelation 21 verse 5, Ecclesiastes 3 verse 11, Isaiah 65 verse 17.

In the scriptures we see how God can show us the plans that He has for us are to prosper us and not to harm us, but to give us a hope and a future. This makes me think of a song by Matthew West called The Story Of Your Life. The Lyrics say this: Is this the end? Or only the beginning?

The second chance, You never thought you'd get

The question is, Will you do something with it

Or spend your days, Lost in your regret

This is the story of your life, You decide

How the rest is gonna read, This is your chance between the lines

To redefine what kind of legacy you leave, This is the story of your life And it's a story worth telling

We have the opportunities that God has given us to share our story with others or we can choose not to share and as Matthew West asks in the song, is this the end or only the beginning? We can choose to let it be the beginning of something or stop there and not let ourselves continue to keep going. See if we chose that, then it's like we're saying that we've given up, let the enemy win and that God's work in us was for nothing and that His plans mean nothing. As children of God, we know that this is always the beginning of something new because God's work in us has and is still continuing to begin. We don't have to be afraid of what the enemy tries to say, because God is with us. When God is always with us, what do we have to fear? The answer to that, is we don't have to fear anything.

I want to share another quote with all of you and the quote says this: Thank you Lord for new beginnings.

I would like us to take a look at some other scriptures now, that talk about Baptism and New Beginnings. 

We are now going to look at Luke 7 verse 47, Matthew 7 verse 7, John 1 verse 1-14, John 3:16, Jeremiah 29 verse 11, Acts 2 verse 38, John 3 verse 5, Colossians 2 verse 12, Romans 6 verse 3-4, John 16 verse 13, Revelation 2 verse 7, 2 Peter 3 verse 18, James 2 verse 24, 2 Timothy 3 verse 16-17, Galatians 3 verse 27, Ephesians 2 verse 8, Acts 1 verse 5, Acts 2 verse 41, John 17 verse 3, John 14 verse 6.

In the scriptures we see that Baptism also has to do with New Beginnings because when we are baptized and we get baptized, we are giving our life to Christ and by doing that, we are starting a relationship with Him. We are asking Him to help us in our Faith walks, and in our relationship with Him because He will help us grow. He is going to help us see that the plans He has for us are greater than what we'll ever know, because we may not know every step but we know that God is merciful in every way and we know that God is going to be with us. 

God Gives Life, Life That Is Everlasting, Life that is forever until He calls us Home to be with Him in Heaven. I'm still currently watching a movie called Heaven on Pureflix. I bring this up because the description of the movie says this: Set between the New World (Heaven) and the Old World (Earth), the story follows the life and afterlife of Jonathan Stone and all those around him from the past, present, and future. 

Now I shared the entire description because I mainly want to focus on how it talks about Heaven and Earth. Here on Earth we try our best to live our lives to the fullest in how God wants us to live. We try to do our best to be the examples and children He made us to be in His Image. 

We're going to be reunited with our loved ones someday and so going back to what we've learned so far, we know that if we want to have a new life and new beginning in Heaven, just like we have life and many beginnings that are new and not new, that we need to continue to Trust, have Faith, Love, Care, and keep knowing that the plans God has for us are going to keep working out in His Timing, For His Good, and For His Glory. God is Love, and God's Love is perfect in every way, because God's Love for us doesn't fail. It doesn't fail, because His Love for us is Fierce and Unending. 

Now that last part came from a song called Belovedness by Sarah Kroger. That song holds special meaning for me, but I wanted to share part of it with all of you because I think it's important to know that when we are talking about New Beginnings, that we also know God's Love doesn't change, and because it doesn't change we know in our hearts, that God will continue to use us for a greater purpose and a purpose that only He knows what it is.

Before I share what I would like to end with and have you all share your prayer requests and comments, there is another quote I would like to share with all of you, and the quote says this: The only way to get rid of your past is to make a future out of it. I wanted to share this quote because it reminds me of Jeremiah 29 verse 11 that says: For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, and not to harm you but to give you a hope and a future. 

I would like to now let anyone share any prayer requests and comments they may have. Thank you all for sharing.

Here is what I would like to leave all of you with tonight.

No matter how hard the past you can always begin again.

Each morning is a new beginning of our life. Each day is a finished whole. The present day marks the boundary of our cares and concerns. It is long enough to find God or lose Him, to keep faith or fall into disgrace.

''Celebrate endings for they precede new beginnings.''

The God who made us can remake us.

Don't be discouraged. It's often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.

What kind of new beginnings have you been trusting in God's Timing on? How do you help others see that the beginnings that God has planned for them can help them be encouraged to never give up, and to keep going in life?

Thank you all for sharing, 

What Does The Bible Say About Integrity

 Tonight we are going to look at What Does The Bible Say About Integrity? I want to start off with some scriptures.

The scriptures we will take a look at are Proverbs 20 verse 7, Phillipians 2 verse 13, Psalm 26 verse 11, Leviticus 19 verse 18, Ezekial 18 verse 7-9, Proverbs 3 verse 3, Genesis 20 verse 5-6, 1 Samuel 29 verse 6, Numbers 16 verse 15, and the last scripture we will look at is Psalm 41 verse 11-13. Thank you all for reading. I would like to share a quote on integrity before going further into what I want to share when I was preparing for this tonight. The quote I would like to share with all of you says this: Integrity is keeping a commitment even after circumstances have changed. Here is something I would now like to share.

When we think of Integrity, we think of God who shows us those He chose to be leaders, His followers, and His Servants. We see how God gives us strength to do all things through Him that gives us strength. I think of Integrity not as a way of showing right from wrong but I see it as a way of standing up for what is right, when things happen that can be in a way unfair or unkind. We want to treat people the way they would want to be treated and that is with Respect. When I think of the word respect, I think of how that can show true integrity in our Faith walk with God because He helps us through the toughest storms and trials that we face in our lives. We are far from perfect but we know that as God's Children, we don't have to be because He doesn't expect us to be perfect. He doesn't want that for our lives, because it isn't in His plan. If we were all made to be that way in a sense, we would already know what God has planned for our lives. God doesn't want us to know everything that He has planned for our lives, and He doesn't expect us to understand it fully either. We think of Integrity, and we think of Humbleness. We think of Humbleness, and we then think of Humility and Kindness. These traits are a great form of what Integrity is in our lives, the integrity that is Spiritual and the Integrity that God gives us.

If I were to describe the word Integrity in my own words and to help someone understand what it meant, I would describe it this way to them: Inspire New Trust Grace Respect Inspirational Trustworthy Yearning. We Inspire others by giving them a new way to look at things with Grace and Respect. We give them an inspirational outlook at God's Creations, and show them that He is Trustworthy and how we can be Yearning for Him and His Word each and every single day.

God gives us a peace in knowing that no matter what we face in our lives that with dignity, integrity, the love and compassion, the kindness, the humbleness, humility, grace, respect, joy, happiness, and everything else He has given us to grow with Him in our walks of Faith and Relationship with Him that we don't have to be afraid because the enemy won't win. The enemy won't win because God always wins the battles and because God always wins our battles that we face in this world, He shows time and time again that true integrity can come from Him and be given to us by Him, if we just be still and know, and let Him help us in our life to show us that and be able to know there is nothing to big or too small for Him to handle in our own life, but what goes on in our world now.

God can get us through it, but we need to first let go and surrender it all to Him. When we can do that, we can start to see the results and the things that He has planned for each of us.

When we think about Spirtual Integrity and what it means especially with the words humility, discernment, and heart, how do we now take those things to heart? How can we be the children that God has called us to be in His presence, in order to be His true Servants?

Thank you all for sharing, I like to share a quote. The quote says this: ''I don't always feel His presence, but God's promises do not depend upon my feelings; they rest upon His integrity.''

I like to share a song called Friend Of God where the lyrics say this: Who am I that You are mindful of me, That You hear me when I call,  Is it true that You are thinking of me

How You love me it's amazing, I am a friend of God, I am a friend of God, I am a friend of God, He calls me friend

God Almighty, Lord of Glory, You have called me friend

I am a friend of God, I am a friend of God, I am a friend of God, He calls me friend, He calls me friend, He calls me friend...  With these lyrics we see that God calls us friend because we always have a special relationship with Him that not only are we friends with God but we are His children. We are fearfully and wonderfully made by Him. He doesn't give up on us, and because He doesn't give up on us, we don't have to worry because He's fighting for us. He fights for us every single day, and why is that? Well let me reshare the quote I did before the song with all of you.

''I don't always feel His presence, but God's promises do not depend upon my feelings; they rest upon His integrity.''

Before I share what I would like to leave all of you with tonight, I like to let anyone share prayer requests and any last minute comments. Thank you all for sharing. Here is what I would like to leave all of you with tonight.

The first thing, says this: ''God doesn't call us to easy; He calls us to be Christ-Like.''

The second thing says: 

Finally, here are the last little things I would like to end on.

God can even give you the strength to keep going within those difficult situations. God calls us to maintain our faith and integrity and we respond by trusting in Him.

Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.