Prepare to meet they God

Dear Friends in Christ,
This is the introductory study of a series of about 20 or so devotionals all about God, the Trinity and Its members, and their attributes.
Enjoy and be blessed.
In Christ...brother bob...<><

Prepare to Meet Thy God

Prepare{Websters}: make yourself ready for a specific purpose.
Prepare{Hebrew}: stand up or erect, make yourself ready, prepare yourself...as in the verse:

(Exo 34:2 KJV)
And be READY in the morning,
and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai,
and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.

Prepare{Greek}: Make yourself ready.
1) THE LORD CONSIDERS THE HEARTS OF MANKIND
(Psa 10:16-18 KJV)
The LORD is King for ever and ever:
the heathen are perished out of his land.
{17} LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble:
thou wilt prepare their heart,
thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
{18} To judge the fatherless and the oppressed,
that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

(Isa 40:21-23 KJV)
Have ye not known? have ye not heard?
hath it not been told you from the beginning?
have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
{22} It is he[The Lord] that sitteth upon the circle of the earth,
and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers;
that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain,
and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
{23} That bringeth the princes to nothing;
he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

(Isa 57:15-16 KJV)
{15} For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,
whose name is Holy;
I dwell in the high and holy place,
with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble,
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
{16} For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth[Heb=filled with rage]:
for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.

(Psa 7:9-11 KJV)
Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end;
but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins[Heb=innermost thoughts].
{10} My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.
{11} God judgeth the righteous,
and God is angry with the wicked every day.

2) THE LORD HAS SENT WARNINGS THROUGH THE PROPHETS AND FINALLY THROUGH CHRIST

(Isa 61:1-2 KJV)
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me;
because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek;
he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
{2} To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all that mourn;

(Luke 1:76-79 KJV)
{76} And thou, child (John the Baptizer), shalt be called the prophet of the Highest:
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
{77} To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,
{78} Through the tender mercy of our God;
whereby the dayspring{Grk=dawning of daylight} from on high hath visited us,
{79} To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.

(Mark 1:2-4 KJV)
As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
which shall prepare thy way before thee.
{3} The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
{4} John did baptize in the wilderness,
and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

(1 Cor 14:8 KJV)
For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound,
who shall PREPARE himself to the battle?
3) PREPARE YOUR HEART TO MEET THE LORD
(1 Sam 7:3 KJV)
And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying,
If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts,
then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth* from among you,
and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only:
and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
*{Ashtareth=Pagan goddess of sensual love and fertility, female counterpart to Baal}

(Job 11:13-17 KJV)
If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward Him;
{14} If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away,
and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.
{15} For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot;
yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear:
{16} Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away:
{17} And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday;
thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.

(1 John 1:5-10 KJV)
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you,
that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
{6} If we say that we have fellowship with him,
and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
{7} But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
{8} If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
{9} If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
{10} If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
4) SEEK THE LORD WHILE HE MAY BE FOUND

(Isa 55:6-9 KJV)
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found,
call ye upon him while he is near:
{7} Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts:
and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him;
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
{8} For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
{9} For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

(Amos 5:4 KJV)
For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel,
Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

(Jer 29:11-14a KJV)
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD,
thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
{12} Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me,
and I will hearken unto you.
{13} And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
{14} And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity...

(Heb 3:7-11 KJV)
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith,
To day if ye will hear his voice, {8} Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation,
in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
{9} When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
{10} Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said,
They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
{11} So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
5) CONFESS AND CLEAR THE SIN OUT OF YOUR LIFE
(Exo 15:2 KJV)
The LORD is my strength and song,
and he is become my salvation:
He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation;
my father's God, and I will exalt him.

(Isa 40:3-8 KJV)
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
{4} Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low:
and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
{5} And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
{6} The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
{7} The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it:
surely the people is grass.
{8} The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

6) THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND. GET SERIOUS, CHANGE YOUR WAYS

(Mat 3:2b KJV)
Repent ye:
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

(Joel 1:14-15 KJV)
Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly,
gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God,
and cry unto the LORD.
{15} Alas for the day!
for the day of the LORD is at hand,
and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

7) YOU DONT KNOW WHEN THE LORD WILL RETURN
(Mat 24:35-51 KJV)
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
{36} But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
{37} But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
{38} For as in the days that were before the flood
they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,
until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
{39} And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away;
so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
{40} Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
{41} Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
{42} Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
{43} But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come,
he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
{44} Therefore be ye also ready:
for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

{45} Who then is a faithful and wise servant,
whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
{46} Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
{47} Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
{48} But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
{49} And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
{50} The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him,
and in an hour that he is not aware of,
{51} And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites:
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

(John 14:1-3 KJV)
Jesus said,
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me{Jesus}.
{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.
{3} And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again, and receive you unto myself;
that where I am, there ye may be also.

(1 Th 4:13-18 KJV)
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep,
that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
{14} For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
{15} For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord,
that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord
shall not prevent {precede} them which are asleep.
{16} For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:
and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
{17} Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds,
to meet the Lord in the air:
and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
{18} Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

(1 Th 5:1-11 KJV)
But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
{2} For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
{3} For when they shall say, Peace and safety;
then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child;
and they shall not escape.
{4} But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
{5} Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day:
we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
{6} Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
{7} For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
{8} But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love;
and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
{9} For God hath not appointed us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
{10} Who died for us,
that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
{11} Wherefore comfort yourselves together,
and edify one another, even as also ye do.

For further study, Check out these archives of past devotionals:
(Note: the devotionals may be under the headings of "discussions" "files" or "pages" )
http://groups.google.com/group/ixtheus-devotionals-archive-part-2?msg=new&lnk=gcis&hl=en
http://groups.google.com/group/ixtheus-devotionals-archive/web?hl=en
http://groups.google.com/group/ixtheus-devotionals-archive/web
http://groups.google.com/group/ixtheus-archives-part-3/
http://groups.google.com/group/ixtheus-devotionals-archive-4
IXTHEUS CHRISTIAN GROWTH DEVOTIONALS
ALWAYS FREE OF CHARGE
(but not necessarily free of COST)
Feel free to redistribute these materials to whomever you want.
Please submit all questions, comments, suggestions,
or REQUESTS FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS to ixtheus@execpc.com

Request a free email copy of my evangelistic presentation:
"The God Who is Really There" from ixtheus@execpc.com