Power

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them he gave them power to become the sons of God... and in John 1:17 the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.  We are all sons and daughters of God through His power. I knew about Moses and Jesus, but not this succcintly, never before thought of them so sharply as this simple verse does. It is as if I never heard it before.  

I know where but When?

 Surely every man walks about as a phantom; Surely they make an uproar for nothing: He amasses riches. and does not know who will gather them. Psalm 39

reading special verses over and over

I was wondering why I like verses that highlight this world and the next. They are not particularly poetic verses to me with any beauty. But I love the comment about the seen and the unseen. I like to envision all the seen that comes from the unseen in such verses as 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 where Paul is speaking. Can we believe that Paul! God picks His greatest enemy for His believers! For me, Paul ranks along side Job. 

Faith

 Anything is possible if you have faith. Mark 9:23  Keyword here is anything, as well as faith. Mark is quoting Jesus. And Jesus mentions enough, enough faith. So Jesus' version supplies the lockdown word enough. I favor the Jesus' quote, though I cannot pretend how much "enough" faith I have.  

Favored Favorites

Setting aside the central Bible verse in John 3:16, my list of top favorites is headed by Hebrews 11:1 NKJ V and a close second would be 2nd Corinthians 4:18, seen and unseen, because it defines the Spirit for me so dramatically, especially when I was an atheist. More details later.  

Spiritual Ecstasy

 The mind is a physical organ like any other, so everyone begins the slide into decay sooner than we realize. Time fools us all, that is my certainty. A life is not very long no matter how long one lives. I had an aunt who lived to be 100 but I still say very few ever get out of their nineties alive and to what point?

The Fruit of the Spirit 

The spirit leaves the flesh behind. I call it being in the fox hole. I think there I will find what I really believe. My mother read John 17 every morning but it was reading Galatians 5:22 when she found herself being overwhelmed by a spiritual ecstasy from the top of her head to her shoulders. She pleaded with me to remember what she had experienced because she was afraid she was going to forget. 

She did and so did I. But since I was never a chapter and verse person, I did not think I had a chance. But it was the word fruit that I pursued eventually on my hand-held computer that I found it in the phone. That one-word fruit did it. Remembering this tells me that there is a spirit in everyone and there is something coming beyond anything I'll ever ask or think. It brought a reassurance (substantively?) closer to me of the spirit within. 

The Fruit of the Spirit

There is only one way, to my understanding of the Bible, how faith in God can be gained or increased. However there is, similar to Paul's experience, revelations such as epiphanies. The way I test an epiphany is to subject it to the fruit of the tree treatment. As a short cut if it does not mirror Jesus then I do not trust it. There are all kinds of spirits that attempt or actually get a hold of person. The fruits of the Spirit are found in Galatians 5:22 and I am not guessing, it would have to be my mother's favorite verse. She pleaded, very emotionally taken. with me to remember the verses for her because she was very fearful she was going to forget where they were.  I missed an early view of the Sea of Forgetfulness.  At the time however I was very skeptical about a lot of issues and promptly forgot them myself. But I see now it shows me how faith is gained or will grow. Today I would put it in my "a tree is known (literally) by its' fruit" category. Later,