Thomas and Amelia, my childrens children, are so very precious to me! Other grandparents tried to express to me just how much love a heart can hold and now I better understand their attempts. Words are simply not adequate to describe what I feel.
You are very precious to God. You are dearly loved. This was the greeting addressed to the prophet Daniel by the angel, Gabriel, the same greeting by the same messenger sent to the virgin, Mary, announcing her immaculate conception. (Daniel 9:23, Luke 1:26) This is no mere sentiment. The God of the universe expresses His perfect love for all creation in the person of Jesus Christ. His love, like His peace, is beyond our ability to comprehend. (Philippians 4:7, Ephesians 3:19) Our names are written on the palms of His hands. (Isaiah 49:16)
“I heard what he said, but I did not understand what he meant.
So I asked, “How will all this finally end, my Lord?”
But he said, “Go now, Daniel, for what I have said is kept secret and sealed until the time of the end.
Many will be purified, cleansed, and refined by these trials.
But the wicked will continue in their wickedness, and none of them will understand.
Only those who are wise will know what it means.
As for you, go your way until the end.
You will rest, and then at the end of the days, you will rise again to receive the inheritance set aside for you.”
Daniel 12:8-10, 13 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/dan.12.8-13.NLT
We live in confusing times but no more so than during Israel’s Babylonian captivity or the Roman occupation of Jesus’s day. The Bible records unmatched evil in the world before the flood of Noah’s day, unparalleled human arrogance at Babel, unequaled perversion in Sodom, and that’s not even half the book of Genesis. For God is not a god of confusion but of peace. (I Corinthians 14:33)
“The closing up and sealing of the scroll until the time of the end (Dan. 12:4, 9) does not signal esoteric knowledge. Partly it has to do with preserving the scroll intact.
It also suggests that the full sweep of its anticipatory and prophetic truth will not be grasped until the events to which it refers arrive on the scene.
Even when the events break out, some will not see—just as some did not “see” what Jesus was saying in his parables (Matt. 13:14-15), and some do not “see” what the Gospel is all about (1 Cor. 2:14).”
For The Love Of God: Day 300 • Devotional
https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/786/day/300?segment=0
“God has made a great many promises.
They are all “Yes” because of what Christ has done.
So through Christ we say “Amen.”
We want God to receive glory.
He makes both us and you remain strong in the faith because we belong to Christ.
He anointed us.
He put his Spirit in our hearts and marked us as his own.
We can now be sure that he will give us everything he promised us.”
2 Corinthians 1:20-22 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/2co.1.20-22.NIRV
“If you’re able to understand this, then you need to respond.”
He explained, “You’ve been given the intimate experience of insight into the hidden mysteries of the realm of heaven’s kingdom, but they have not.
For everyone who listens with an open heart will receive progressively more revelation until he has more than enough.
But those who don’t listen with an open, teachable heart, even the understanding that they think they have will be taken from them.
That’s why I teach the people using parables, Jesus said, because they think they’re looking for truth, yet because their hearts are unteachable, they never discover it.
Although they will listen to me, they never fully perceive the message I speak.
The prophecy of Isaiah describes them perfectly:
Although they listen carefully to everything I speak, they don’t understand a thing I say.
They look and pretend to see, but the eyes of their hearts are closed.
Their minds are dull and slow to perceive, their ears are plugged and are hard of hearing, and they have deliberately shut their eyes to the truth.
Otherwise they would open their eyes to see, and open their ears to hear, and open their minds to understand.
Then they would turn to me and I would instantly heal them.”
Matthew 13:9, 11-15 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/mat.13.15.TPT
“Someone living on an entirely human level rejects the revelations of God’s Spirit, for they make no sense to him.
He can’t understand the revelations of the Spirit because they are only discovered by the illumination of the Spirit.
Those who live in the Spirit are able to carefully evaluate all things, and they are subject to the scrutiny of no one but God.”
1 Corinthians 2:14-15 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/1co.2.14-15.TPT
God’s Word revealed by His Spirit always requires a response. Give as freely as you have received. (Matthew 10:8)
“God will continually revitalize you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases him.
Live a cheerful life, without complaining or division among yourselves.
For then you will be seen as innocent, faultless, and pure children of God, even though you live in the midst of a brutal and perverse culture.
For you will appear among them as shining lights in the universe, holding out the words of eternal life.”
Philippians 2:13-16 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/php.2.13-16.TPT
“Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever.”
Daniel 12:3 NLT
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