Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
April 29, 2025: SOAP #5626:  2Samuel 4,5; Psalm 139; Matthew 16

SCRIPTURE:   Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

OBSERVATION:   If I really want to please God, then I must know what pleases Him.  I cannot live my life doing what pleases me and just hope that enough of it will please Him that I will make it into heaven. 

APPLICATION:   There are two ways to organize one’s life.  First is to please myself and hope that some of it pleases God.  The second way is to set my heart to please God and discover that it very often pleases me too!  

There are two sources of knowledge about God and what pleases Him.  First is The Word of God which many refer to as the Holy Bible or the scriptures.  In them we read about the character of God and see how Jesus lived in this world.  Second is the Holy Spirit that comes into our lives when we take Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  He often releases joy when we are pleasing God and usually fills our heart with guilt, or remorse, or heaviness when we do what displeases God. 

PRAYER:   Lord, thank you for the joy that fills our hearts when we first invite you to live in our hearts.  And thank you for the peace you bring into our lives.  Teach us from your Word how to please you.  Walk with us, talk with us.  Teach us to recognize your voice.  In Your Name, Lord Jesus, we pray,  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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Just a note of rejoicing to share with SOAP readers.  Yesterday evening there was a LARGE group of people gathered to hear about Jesus and the SOAPs. (35-40,000) It is reported that 19,000 accepted Jesus as Lord and gave their names and phone numbers to receive the daily SOAPs. 
So, if you had a glad day today, it might have been that the joy of heaven spilled over into your heart!   Please pray for the SOAP team to help these new believers grow in their faith and in the joy of the Lord!   It’s a new day of the Lord!  

Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
April 28, 2025: SOAP #5625:  2Samuel 3; 1Chronicles 12; Matthew 15

SCRIPTURE:  Matthew (NIV) 15:4  For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ 5 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ 6 he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus, you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 8 “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’”

OBSERVATION:   In these verses Jesus was speaking to the religious leaders about the way they twisted the commands.  They talked like they had it all together when it came to spiritual things, but the most important part to God—their heart—was far from what it should be.    

I hear him saying their worship was useless to God and useless to themselves.  Their teaching should have come from their personal relationship with God, but instead they just mouthed what someone else had said. 

APPLICATION:   It is good to learn from others, but I must personally hear God speaking to me.  And when He does use people to speak to me, the Holy Spirit confirms in my spirit that the message is from God.    That happens more often when I honor God with my lips AND with my heart.

The personal relationship that God desires is for us to accept Jesus offer of forgiveness (made possible by His sinless life and death on the cross) and to make Jesus the Lord of our lives.  We invite Him to live in our lives, not as a guest, but as a permanent, honored resident, as the LORD of our lives.

PRAYER:   Lord, as a child, I used to sing:  “Into my heart, come into my heart, come into my heart Lord Jesus.  Come in today, come in to stay; come into my heart Lord Jesus.”  Amen. 

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
On Facebook:  Today’s SOAP from Pastor Leon

Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
April 20, 2025: SOAP #5617:  1Samuel 23; Psalm 31,54; Matthew 7

SCRIPTURE:  Matthew (NIV) 7:21 Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.  Only those who do what my Father in heaven wants will enter.  …
24 “So then, everyone who hears my words and puts them into practice is like a wise man.  He builds his house on the rock. 
25 The rain comes down.  The water rises.  The winds blow and beat against that house.  But it does not fall.  It is built on the rock.   

OBSERVATION:   Jesus knew what he was talking about.  He came to do the will of the Father.  He said that the works he did were really the Father’s works and the words he spoke were also the Father’s. 

Doing the Father’s will led Him to the cross and the grave.  It also led him through the resurrection back to the glory at His Father’s side.     

APPLICATION:   The first work of being a Christian is to believe.   I must believe that the work of Jesus on the cross is the full payment for my sins.  Forgiveness is amazing grace offered to me; I receive it by faith. 

That my life belongs to Jesus can be easily seen by others as I do what He directs. 

Salvation starts in my heart but finds expressions through my actions and words.  If there is no outward expression, there is probably no inward life.  After all, faith without works is dead.

PRAYER:   Lord, not just a hearer, but a doer is what you expect from me.  May my hands and feet please you as much as my heart.  And, Lord, as we celebrate your resurrection today, may it become clear to others that You are alive and living in me.  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
On Facebook:  Today’s SOAP from Pastor Leon