The Joy of Jesus is Being Blessed

Praise for the LORD's Benefits
A Psalm of David.

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul:

and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits:
3 who forgiveth all thine iniquities;

who healeth all thy diseases;
4 who redeemeth thy life from destruction;

who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies;
5 who satisfieth thy mouth with good things;

so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
6 The LORD executeth righteousness

and judgment for all that are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways unto Moses,

his acts unto the children of Israel.
8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, Jas. 5.11

slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
9 He will not always chide:

neither will he keep his anger for ever.
10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins;

nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heaven is high above the earth,

so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west,

so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
13 Like as a father pitieth his children,

so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
14 For he knoweth our frame;

he remembereth that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are as grass:

as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone;

and the place thereof shall know it no more.
17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting

upon them that fear him,
and his righteousness unto children's children;
18 to such as keep his covenant,

and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
19 The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens;

and his kingdom ruleth over all.
20 Bless the LORD, ye his angels,

that excel in strength,
that do his commandments,
hearkening unto the voice of his word.
21 Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts;

ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
22 Bless the LORD, all his works

in all places of his dominion:
bless the LORD, O my soul.

Published by The American Bible Society

The Joy of Jesus is Blessing People

Praise God in Christ Jesus for all people with the blessings of The Lord. In Jesus Name: 1.) Access to God's Grace.....(Ephesians 2:8+18) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

2.) We are adopted by God....(Ephesians 1:5) Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (Galatians 4:5) To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

3.) We get an Inheritance....(Ephesians 1:11) In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

4.) We are elected (saved)...(1 Peter 1:2) Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

5.) We become a child of God...(John 1:12) But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

6.) We get a heavenly citizenship...(2 Timothy 4:18) And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

7.) We become a servant....(Romans 6:22) But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

8.) We are heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus...(Romans 8:17) And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Galatians 3:29) And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

9.) We become a new creature...(2 Corinthians 5:17) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (Galatians 6:15) For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

10.) We become priests....(1 Peter 2:9) But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (Revelation 1:6) And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

11.) We are reconciled to God....(Romans 5:10) For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

12.) We are Sanctified......(1 Corinthians 6:11) And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

13.) We are accepted in the Beloved...(Ephesians 1:6) To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

14.) We are Baptized into the body of Christ.....(1 Corinthians 12:13) For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

15. ) We are buried with him.....(Romans 6:4) Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

16. ) We have put on Christ....(Galatians 3:27) For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

17. ) We have eternal life...(John 10:28) And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

18. ) We have peace with God...(John 14:27) Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

19. ) We became a friend of God....(John 15:15) Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

20. ) We get in the Lamb's book of life...(Revelation 21:27) And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

21. ) We receive imputed righteousness....(Romans 4:6) Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

22. ) Our names are written in heaven.....(Luke 10:20) Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

23. ) We are given a blessed hope of Christ's returning....(Titus 2:13) Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

24. ) We are seated in heavenly places.....(Ephesians 2:6) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

25. ) We have fellowship with the trinity.....(1 John 1:3) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. (Philippians 2:1) If

there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

26. ) We have a mansion in heaven...(John 14:2) In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

27. ) We are born again with a spiritual re-birth.....(John 3:3-6) Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

28. ) We have received an annointing....(1 John 2:27) But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

29. ) The Holy Spirit will live with us now and forever....(John 14:16) And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

30. ) We've been sealed by the Holy spirit unto the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30) And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

31. ) Our bodies become the temple of the Holy Ghost.....(1 Corinthians 6:19) What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

32. ) We are forever forgiven.....(Luke 7:48) And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.(1 John 2:12) I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.

33. ) We are justified in God's sight.....(Romans 5:1) Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

34. ) We are redeemed....(Revelation 5:9) And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

35. ) Indwelt by the Holy Spirit.....(Romans 8:9) But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

36. ) We have an advocate with Christ...(1st John 2:1) My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

37. ) We now have the possibility to have victory over sin....(Romans 6:14) For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

38. ) We become Christ's ambassadors.....(2nd Corinthians 5:20) Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

39. ) We are blessed with spiritual blessings..... (Ephesians 1:3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ:

40. ) Our every need will be supplied by God....(Philippians 4:19) But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

41. ) Given an inner strength to accomplish necessary things(Philippians 4:13) I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

42. ) A good work has been done in us....(Philippians 1:6) Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

43. ) The Lord becomes our helper instead of our judge..(Hebrews 13:6) So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

44. ) We get abounding grace...(2 Corinthians 9:8) And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

45. ) We get eternal love....(Romans 8:38-39) For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

46. ) Everthing that happens to us will be for our own good....(Romans 8:28) And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

47. ) A promised faithfulness regardless of our faithlessness....(2 Timothy 2:13) If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself

48. ) A promise given to be able to resist temptation....(1 Corinthians 10:13) There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

49. ) We are made kings...(Revelation 1:6) And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

50. ) We became saints....(1 Corinthians 1:2) Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

51. ) We have been delivered from the power of darkness....(Colossians 1:12-13) Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

52. ) Our hearts are unblamable....(1 Thessalonians 3:13) To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

53. ) We get the power of a sound mind....( (2 Timothy 1:7) For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

A Message of Peace from The Joy of Jesus

Peace! Be still!

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

- Mark 4:35-41

In yesterday's passage, we read several of Jesus' parables regarding the description of the kingdom, and what it is like to have faith. These word-pictures vividly describe the action of faith and its growth, and tell us about its unfolding and revelation for us.

But faith isn't just about the wondrous growth, and our moments of joy. Faith, I find, also involves confronting one's own fears. I don't think I can make this journey of faith without a kind of self-confrontation that goes on all the time. As a practitioner of contemplative prayer, I find that I am constantly coming up against my own experiences, my own past and its residue of response in me. That means I encounter a lot of fears. Faith is constantly asking me to go forward, to make decisions that are different from in the past. This is, in my opinion, the way repentance works. It needn't be a terrible sin one repents from in the sense that a wiser decision can be made to change one's way of thinking as we grow. Maybe there is a better way. If, through prayer, you find yourself urged to reconsider the ways you've always thought about things, or perhaps traumatic and harsh past experiences that still have an emotional residue within you, this too can be the action of the Holy Spirit creating repentance, or metanoia, "change of mind."

The action of the Spirit is to always heal, to ask us to grow and to progress. We know, again, from Jesus' parables yesterday, that this kingdom is like a lamp set on a lampstand, that sheds its light everywhere. So, in the prayer process through time, that lamp will shine its light in all of our dark corners and ask us about changing something we may have chosen long ago. This is a form of healing. As we grow like the mustard seed in our faith, that "large shrub" must include gifts of the Spirit that augment our characters. We see in the gospels, for example, this transformation in St. Peter. But that naturally means that we confront our fears of changing, of embarking on the new place that faith leads us. And often, the journey of faith asks us to confront real fears of loss and departure from the familiar. The apostles and early believers left family, home, everything for this faith. They faced martyrdom and persecution.

So, after Jesus has told us wonderful parables about faith and the kingdom in yesterday's daily reading, today we find his apostles confronting a storm. We could think of this storm as a kind of parallel to what they will eventually encounter as apostles in their difficulties in establishing the church. But we remember that we have something and someone with us who helps us on this journey. And that is the key to this gospel passage. Jesus commands the storm to Be still! In the original Greek, the word used here is the same word with which Jesus commanded the demon to be quiet in Mark 1:25.

Just as our faith sets us out on the journey, it also accompanies us through the difficulties of that journey. I believe this sort of confrontation is all part of the effects of the transformational reality of that kingdom, its power and its reality. We don't live in a world where life is always charmed; we need a faith that gets us through its difficulties, just as our example in Jesus has taught us.

Have you still no faith? We are being given yet another example here, in addition to yesterday's parables, of what it is to have faith, how faith works and what it does. We encounter difficulties on this road, and it is faith itself that must get us through. We call on the One in whom we have that faith when we need help to keep it strong on this journey.

Prayer: We pray for peace in Jesus name We pray for all souls to know and give to The Joy of Jesus according to Thy Will O' God.

Thank You for all blessings in The Christ.

Praise God Forever in Jesus name. A-men....

Bless The Lord Today and be Blessed

Psalm 103
1Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

2Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

3Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

4Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

5Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

6The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

7He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

8The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

9He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.

10He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

11For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

12As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

13Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

14For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

15As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

16For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

17But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

18To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

19The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

20Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.

21Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.

22Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.


King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain

The Rev. Dr. James A. Lee Prayer: Chile/Haiti

Dear God of all creation and heaven and earth, The Father of The Lord Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit of all Truth, we praise Thee.

God of all Glory, we pray for the sins of the world in Jesus name. We pray for all the people of Haiti and Chile as they recover from all of their troubles. We ask in Jesus name that the people of the world will donate to their recovery.

We thank God and Praise God for all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.A-em.