Paul Okada

The first step to being a blessing to others is to repent

Jeremiah 4:1-2 (NLT)
“OIsrael,” says the LORD, “if you wanted to return to me, you could. You could throw away your detestable idols and stray away no more.

How to repent

Jeremiah 3:12-15 (NLT)
Therefore, go and give this message to Israel. This is what the LORD says: “OIsrael, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever.

Denial of Sin is itself a Sin

Jeremiah 2:35 (NLT)
And yet you say, ‘I have done nothing wrong. Surely God isn’t angry with me!’ But now I will punish you severely because you claim you have not sinned.

We turn our backs to God until we need Him

Jeremiah 2:25-28 (NLT)
When will you stop running? When will you stop panting after other gods? But you say, ‘Save your breath. I’m in love with these foreign gods, and I can’t stop loving them now!’

Isaiah 6:1-8

Isaiah 6:1-8 (NIV)
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

There are things that people were not meant to understand

Isaiah 6:9 (NIV)
He said, "Go and tell this people: "'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'

The Path to Being Like Jesus

2 Peter 1:3-8 (NLT)
By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.

New heaven

Isaiah 65:17-25 (NLT)
“Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore.

Proverbs 19:17

Proverbs 19:17 (NLT)
If you help the poor, you are lending to the LORD— and he will repay you!

The need for confession

Isaiah 59:1-2 (NLT)
Listen! The LORD’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call.

1 Peter 4:10

1 Peter 4:10 (NIV84)
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.

Isaiah 58:10

Isaiah 58:10 (NLT)
Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.

True Worship

Isaiah 58:3-7 (NLT)
‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers.

1 Peter 3:15-16

1 Peter 3:15-16 (NLT)
Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.

Competition

Galatians 5:25 (MSG)
Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

The Bible

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (ESV)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

Leviticus 18:22

Leviticus 18:22 (NIV84)
“ ‘Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

Leviticus 18:3

Leviticus 18:3 (NIV84)
You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.

Ephesians 3:17

Ephesians 3:17 (NIV)
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

Ephesians 3:18

Ephesians 3:18 (NIV)
may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

Ephesians 3:19

Ephesians 3:19 (NIV)
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 2:10

Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:8

Ephesians 2:8 (NIV)
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

Ephesians 2:9

Ephesians 2:9 (NIV)
not by works, so that no one can boast.

Hebrews 11:13, Hebrews 11:16

Hebrews 11:13 (NIV)
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.

Hebrews 11:16 (NIV)
Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.