Zondervan - Bible Promises for You

Bible Promises for You from the New International Version
Copyright 2005 by The Zondervan Corporation.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.
ePub Edition NOVEMBER 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-87022-7
Requests for information should be addressed to: Inspirio, the gift group of Zondervan Developed and produced by The Livingstone Corporation. Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530 http://www.inspiriogifts.com
Previously published as Gods Promises for You from the New International Version.
All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, (North American Edition). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

All rights reserved.
The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society.
The Plan of Salvation is an excerpt from Billy Grahams book, Just As I Am 1997 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Published by HarperCollins and Zondervan Publishing House. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
The foreword is an excerpt from Joni Eareckson Tadas book More Precious Than Silver 1998 Joni Eareckson Tada. Published by Zondervan Publishing House. L. L.

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.-John 1:1
T he Bible reveals Gods soul to us in a way that no other book is able to do. It is history, wisdom, and poetry. It is unparalleled as a compendium of theology, philosophy, and ethics. It is a gospel tract, distilling the essence of our relationship with an eternal God.
Though the Bible contains all these things, it is at its heart an autobiography. The Bible is all about God. Through even the most twisted and unlikely narratives, some even tawdry, we see Gods soul reflected to us.
Every word speaks something to us of his soul.
Treasure Gods Word today.

In everything you read, you will come to know the soul of God, he who is the lover of your soul.

T he Bible says that we have been separated and alienated from God because we have willfully turned our backs on Him and are determined to run our lives without Him. This is what the Bible means by sinchoosing our way instead of Gods way, and not giving Him His rightful place in our lives. The evidence of this is all around us, in the moral chaos and heartache of our world. The headlines scream every day that we live in a broken, sin-ravaged world. But in addition, the message declares that God still loves us.

He yearns to forgive us and bring us back to Himself. He wants to fill our lives with meaning and purpose right now. Then He wants us to spend all eternity with Him in Heaven, free forever from the pain and sorrow and death of this world. Moreover, God has done everything possible to reconcile us to Himself. He did this in a way that staggers our imagination. In Gods plan, by His death on the Cross, Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins, taking the judgment of God that we deserve upon Himself when He died on the Cross.

Now, by His resurrection from the dead, Christ has broken the bonds of death and opened the way to eternal life for us. The resurrection also confirms for all time that Jesus was in fact who He said He was: the unique Son of God, sent from Heaven to save us from our sins. Now God freely offers us the gift of forgiveness and eternal life. Finally, this message is about our response. Like any other gift, Gods gift of salvation does not become ours until we accept it and make it our own. God has done everything possible to provide salvation.

But we must reach out in faith and accept it. How do we do this? First, by confessing to God that we are sinners and in need of His forgiveness; then by repenting of our sins and, with Gods help, turning from them. Second, by committing our lives to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The best-known verse in the New Testament states the Gospel concisely: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:16-17). God in His grace invites us to receive His Son into our lives today.

If you have never done so, I invite you to bow your head right now and by a simple prayer of faith open your heart to Jesus Christ. God receives us just as we are. No matter who we are or what we have done, we are saved only because of what Christ has done for us. I will not go to Heaven because I have preached to great crowds. I will go to Heaven for one reason: Jesus Christ died for me, and I am trusting Him alone for my salvation. Christ died for you also, and He freely offers you the gift of eternal life as you commit your life to Him.

When you do, you become a child of God, adopted into His family forever. He also comes to live within you and will begin to change you from within. No one who truly gives his or her life to Christ will ever be the same, for the promise of His Word is true: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). We have seen this happen countless times all over the world, and it can happen in your life as well. Open your life to Christ today.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that dayand not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:7-8
I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Ecclesiastes 3:13
LORD, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.Isaiah 26:12
A longing fulfilled is a tree of life.Proverbs 13:12
Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. Ecclesiastes 3:13
LORD, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.Isaiah 26:12
A longing fulfilled is a tree of life.Proverbs 13:12
Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christthe righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

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