Welcome to The Belonging! We are a Church that loves God and loves people. We are passionate about seeing people encounter God through worship, and experience the freedom that comes through knowing Jesus. Whoever you are, and wherever you come from, you are welcome!
The following article, containing dozens of spiritual quotes by our United States Presidents, is taken from Ed Moore's book, Prayer Force One: Across America. It is presented here in order to preserve the foundations of our nation's spiritual heritage. You may order Ed Moore's book by clicking on the book at the right.
The power of prayer is an incredible thing. At Philanthropy, we know that prayer is something important – but let us attempt to explain how much the Lord blesses us every day. About a year ago, Philanthropy started The Prayer Wall based on a story of a personal battle with cancer, and a mission set on our hearts from one of our customers. A random interaction turned into a very important day for all of us.
Each year, students gather around their school's flag pole for SYATP - the Global Day of Student Prayer. This year, SYATP is on September 25 and we want to show the power of prayer in the Nashville community.
A clarion call has been made to gather the saints for a grassroots effort across the state of Tennessee. We will serve those in authority from the Courthouse to the White House. We will serve through intercession for and interaction with governmental leaders in order to impact our cities, our state and nation. We will not only minister to those in the high place, but also those in the forgotten place. We will discern the heartbeat of cities and communities from mayors and city and county officials to determine how we can best serve those in authority. May we rise up rather than fall back in this hour and walk through the gates of government to serve with the heart and mind of Christ.BIG!
Having someone to believe in because they are perfect in every way and we can believe every word they say is BIG!God is all that & more! God is BIG! Here are seven ways God is BIG, of course, there are many other ways.
God created a BIG WORLD!
Praise the Lord from the heavens.
Praise him high above the earth.
Praise him, all you angels.
Praise him, all you armies of heaven.
Praise him, sun and moon.
Praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, highest heavens
and you waters above the sky.
Let them praise the Lord
because they were created by his command.
He set them in place forever and ever.
He made a law that will never end. Psalms 148:1-6
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Psalms 150:6
God can see the BIG PICTURE!
God sees the BIG PICTURE because He is eternal.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Psalms 90:2
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Revelation 22:13
From the beginning I revealed the end. From long ago I told you things that had not yet happened, saying, “My plan will stand, and I’ll do everything I intended to do.” Isaiah 46:10
God knows best how to answer our prayers because He sees the big picture. Eternity is the BIG PICTURE. We think we are big, but we’re not. We could get swallowed up by the vastness of eternity if it weren’t for God. He loves us! We matter in the grand scheme of things, in the BIG PICTURE.
God’s understanding is infinite, ours is finite, so we should plan and pray according to His will, not ours.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5:14-15
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:13-15
Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.Psalms 147:5
GOD has a BIG PLAN!
We see a glimpse of God’s plan for humanity in the story of Noah and the flood.
Before the flood. . .The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.Genesis 6:11
But. . .
Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.Genesis 6:8
And Noah built an ark.
The ark was BIG and it had a BIG door!
and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.Genesis 6:16
When the time for the flood came, God told Noah and his family to enter the ark. They had to enter by the door.
God has built an even BIGGER ARK. He built a safe place for humanity to go, Jesus! Jesus brings us home to God. He saves us from the flood of ungodliness that is covering this world! When God sent the flood in the days of old, He saved a family. Noah’s family. This time He saves His family.
We find grace in Jesus! Ephesians 2:8
We enter salvation by a door. Jesus is the door!
I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. John 10:9
The plan of salvation is BIG!
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.Isaiah 51:6 (KJV)
For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.Jeremiah 29:11 (Amplified)
God has a BIG HEART!
God has a BIG HEART and it’s full of love, in fact, God is love!
. . .God is love. 1 John 4:8
God’s love is strong and never dies!
God wrote a BIG beautiful Book!
The Holy Bible is God’s book.
What does that word Holy mean? The Words in the Holy Bible are sacred, set apart, set above any other writings! They are infallible. They are true! They were written over a period of 1400 to 1800 years by more than 40 different people. God is the author, people were the writers. They wrote down what He inspired them to write down. The Holy Bible has 66 books and has two parts. The Old Testament has 39 books and the New Testament has 27 books
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God’s Word is ALIVE and LIVING and POWERFUL! The words in the Holy Bible come from God’s heart and like Him, they will never, ever die!
For we have the living Word of God, which is full of energy, and it pierces more sharply than a two-edged sword. It will even penetrate to the very core of our being where soul and spirit, bone and marrow meet! It interprets and reveals the true thoughts and secret motives of our hearts. Hebrews 4:12 (TPT)
The Holy Bible is GOD BREATHED!
Remember what you were taught from your childhood from the Holy Scrolls which can impart to you wisdom to experience everlasting life through the faith of Jesus, the Anointed One! Every Scripture has been written by the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. It will empower you by its instruction and correction, giving you the strength to take the right direction and lead you deeper into the path of godliness. Then you will be God’s servant, fully mature and perfectly prepared to fulfill any assignment God gives you.2 Timothy 3:15-17 (TPT)
The Holy Word of God can do BIG things in our hearts, in our lives, if we will give heed to them.
God can make a BIG DIFFERENCE!
Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil! Did you hear that? He came to destroy the works of the devil! That, my friends, makes a BIG DIFFERENCE! You know all the woes and angst of this world came from listening to the evil one and not the good One in the first place. God is the good One. God is good. Jesus came to teach us good and help us do good. Good overcoming evil makes a BIG DIFFERENCE. Good can change hatred into love, greed into generosity, war into peace, and the list goes on. Stand on the side of good. Learn about how good wins and evil loses in the Holy Bible.
God has a BIG PRESENCE!
God is everywhere my friends, everywhere!
And not a creature exists that is concealed from His sight, but all things are open and exposed, and revealed to the eyes of Him with whom we have to give account. Hebrews 4:13
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Acts 17:24-28 KJV
GOD has a BIG FAMILY!
God is all about family and He has made a great BIG one, in Jesus!
When I think of the wisdom and scope of his plan, I fall down on my knees and pray to the Father of all the great family of God—some of them already in heaven and some down here on earth— that out of his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you the mighty inner strengthening of his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself, Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes. May he be given glory forever and ever through endless ages because of his master plan of salvation for the Church through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 3:14-21 Living Bible
Prayer
Thank you God for giving us another chance to believe Your Word by sending us Jesus, we believe what He has taught us about You. He shows us Your will, Your nature, Your life! When we come out of world into Him, we become Your family. Thank You for recreating us sons and daughters in Him, so we can have real hope in our hearts, a prayer on our lips and an amazingly beautiful home in heaven. Amen