Is Stress getting to you ?

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Isaiah 40:31 - “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Stress is nothing new. Noah had it when he was building the ark with no rain in sight. Martha had it when she was preparing a meal for our Lord. Stress is the gap between the demands placed on us and the strength we have in meeting those demands. It is not a sin to be stressed, nor a sin to be weary. It is a sin, though, not to seek a lessening of that stress which tears down the temple of the Holy Spirit, your body. Where is your answer? In waiting upon the Lord — waiting in the midst of demands. When you learn to wait on Him, God steps in to bridge the stress gap with His mighty strength.

ACTION POINT:
Ask God to equip you to be a stress-buster today. Perhaps it will be your boss or your spouse that is “stressed out.” Rejoice in the opportunity you have to share God’s love.

Who was St. Patrick ?

Little is known of Patrick's early life, though it is known that he was born in Roman Britain in the fifth century, into a wealthy Romano-British family. His father and grandfather were deacons in the Church. At the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken captive to Ireland as a slave.[1] It is believed he was held somewhere on the west coast of Ireland, possibly Mayo, but the exact location is unknown. According to his Confession, he was told by God in a dream to flee from captivity to the coast, where he would board a ship and return to Britain. Upon returning, he quickly joined the Church in Auxerre in Gaul and studied to be a priest.

In 432, he again says that he was called back to Ireland, though as a bishop, to save the Irish, and indeed he was successful at this, focusing on converting royalty and aristocracy as well as the poor. Irish folklore tells that one of his teaching methods included using the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) to the Irish people. After nearly thirty years of teaching and spreading God's Word he died on 17 March, 461 AD, and was buried at Downpatrick, so tradition says. Although there were other more successful missions to Ireland from Rome, Patrick endured as the principal champion of Irish Christianity and is held in esteem in the Irish Church.

Why sometimes our prayers are hindered.....

II Samuel 21: 1-14.

Ever wonder why our praayers are not answered ?

There are reasons our prayers are hindered....stopped or even temporary hindered....

It is because of sin....it stops our prayers in there tracks, to the Throne of God.....

In (verse 1)- King David prayed after 3 yrs of famine in the land.

And God told David why the famine.. (Saul had killed some Gibeonites..read, Joshua 9:3-27)

Sometimes our prayers are hindered as a result of sin in the home..

But here it wasn't because of David's sin, but another before him...But it was still considered in the land (kingdom, or in our day in the Country or to bring it closer...in our home)

For our rayers to be heard... We have to confess all our sins to God and others (if it is against someone we have personally hurt).

There must be no unconfessed sin in our home (especially with the Husband of the home)..

That's very important...

look in (verse 14) When sin is removed then prayers are answered...


Is your home clean ??....

It's just Grace, not me....

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Ephesians 2:5 - “But God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved).”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Suppose your best friend offered to buy you a new car. You tell him that you can’t accept it outright and offer to help pay for the car. Then you say, “Here’s a quarter. Thank you!” Now you’re driving around, and somebody compliments you on your new car and you say, “Thanks! My friend and I bought this car.” Wouldn’t that be ridiculous? Well, that’s what we’re doing with God when we add our two bits-worth of self-effort to His grace. If you do that, you take the glory from Almighty God. When you get to heaven, all you’re going to be able to say is, “Jesus paid it all.”

ACTION POINT:
Spend some time reading Ephesians 2 today and praise God for His divine plan of salvation.

Eternal life..

BIBLE MEDITATION:
1 John 5:13 - “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
A woman told the great evangelist Dwight L. Moody, “I’ve been saved twenty-five years, and I’ve never had one single doubt.” He responded, “Madam, I doubt you’ve been saved.” That would be like a couple saying they’ve been married 50 years and never had an argument. I’d say, “I doubt you’ve been married.” We all have doubts. You see, doubt is to your spirit what pain is to your body. It is a signal that something is wrong. And just as you seek to find a remedy for your pain, you should seek to find a remedy for your doubts. Jesus is your remedy. Get into His Word and know the assurance of your salvation. It’s not you. It’s Jesus that makes it possible.

ACTION POINT:
Are you doubting your salvation? Then- run to Jesus. Soak yourself in these truths from God’s Word: Romans 10:13, Ephesians 2:1-10 and Titus 3:5.

How is your Worldview ??

How is your Worldview ????...

Why does the Chruch have no voice NOW, in our society ???.....is it because we have been too silent on spiritual issues, that the Bible clearly frowns on ?....is it because we have watered down the gospel some much to just say sin is your own point of view and not what the Bible says anymore ?????..............

All sin is sin, however the ones that creep into our society today is the Gay marriage and abortion and also might I add....disrespect to our parents, lying.... and all disobedience to God's Word......

Many will say, as long as it doesn't effect me......then why should I worry or do or say anything about it !!!!!......

I don't want to judge anyone........right ????....judging someone is their intentions from the heart, and only God can effectively do that, yes.....but God does want His people to stand up and be heard, in other words to speak the truth in love.....with love as your guide...(Holy Spirit)

I remember a woman in the Scriptures named......Queen Esther, what would have happened if she said nothing, while her people suffered....and then died later by the evil that lurked ?????

While she pondered this, of what to do....someone close to her said something... Mordeci, said if you stand by and do nothing.....make no mistake, deliverance WILL COME FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE, HOWEVER YOU AND YOUR FATHER'S HOUSE WILL BE DESTROYED.....

And who know's as whether you where brought here for such a time as this !!!!!

Chrurch family, WE MUST STAND FOR THE ONES WHO CAN'T STAND AND TALK FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T TALK, AND WE MUST ACT FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T ACT FOR THEMSELVES.....

LET'S ALWAYS DO WHAT IS RIGHT FOR OUR FATHER..... WHO SENT HIS ONLY SON FOR US, WHEN WE DID NOT DESERVE A SAVIOUR......

Do what you can do in your sphere of influence......today !!!!

God bless of the family of faith

Does your spirit bear witness with God's Spirit ?

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Romans 8:16 - “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
A farmer and his farmhand went duck hunting. The farmer said to his friend, “You’re always talking about fighting with the devil. I’m not a Christian, and I never have to fight with the devil.” The farmhand answered, “Boss, if you and I shot two ducks, one was wounded and one was dead, which one would you go after first?” He said, “Well, I guess the wounded duck.” He said, “That’s right. The devil knows you’re a dead duck.” If the devil doesn’t bother you, it’s because he doesn’t have to bother you, since you and he are traveling in the same direction. If you turned around, you’d have a collision with him. Right now, you are in collusion with him.

ACTION POINT:
Are you a child of God? Then, praise Him that He has given you the power over Satan and placed you on the pathway to see Him face to face!

Spritually mature...

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Galatians 6:1 - “If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
As a young boy in Florida, I loved to collect coconuts and sell them. One day while up a tree, I was using my right hand to disconnect a coconut when the palm frond let go. I fell on the grass, but my left arm fell on the sidewalk. It was a bad situation. My brother was there, and he saw what happened to me. As I was lying there, having fallen, what did I need? Well, I didn’t need a lecture. I didn’t need my brother to go around to the community and say, “Did you hear about Adrian?” I didn’t need for him to come along and shoot me to put me out of my misery. What I needed was restoration.

ACTION POINT:
Do you have a brother or a sister in Christ who is overtaken with a fault? If so, go and restore him; restore her.

The Lord Jesus still lives....He is God !!!

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Revelation 1:18 - “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
I went to see Lenin’s tomb when I was in Moscow. He is sealed in a crystal case. You can see his waxen face and his trimmed beard, and on that tomb these words are written: “He was the greatest leader of all peoples of all countries of all times. He was the lord of the new humanity. He was the savior of the world.” Do you notice it’s all past tense? He was. Jesus is alive. He is the great I AM. It is an encounter with the living Christ that makes the difference in our lives. We serve a Savior who is alive and listening to our every prayer. He is bottling every tear and rejoicing with every victory.

ACTION POINT:
Thank God for His plan of love that sent His Son to die for you. Praise Him that Jesus lives forevermore!

Because of Love....

BIBLE MEDITATION:
John 10:17b-18 - “...because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
The true depth of the Savior’s love becomes apparent when you consider an important truth — Jesus Christ is the only person who ever chose to die. “But what about kamikaze pilots in World War II? What about soldiers who, having heard the ominous 'click' of a land mine, bravely stood still until their buddies could scurry to safety?” They didn’t choose to die in the final sense of the word; they only chose when to die. You and I and everyone yet to be will die eventually, but there was only One who did not have to die. Nails didn’t hold our Savior to the tree. Silver cords of love and golden bonds of redemption held Him there.

ACTION POINT:
Read Psalm 22, 23, and 24 and rejoice in the provision, protection, and providence of the Good Shepherd!

What about our youth ?

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Psalm 71:17 - “O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared Thy wondrous works.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Satan is on a killing spree — he wants to kill our memory and set us awash in the sea of forgetfulness without any recollection of our Christian heritage as a nation. Tragically, he’s aiming his artillery at our children, and particularly in the place where they used to grow in the knowledge of good things — the public school. Prayer is out. Police are in. Bibles are out. Values clarification is in. The Ten Commandments are out. Social engineering is in. Creation is out. Evolution is in. History is out. Revisionism is in. God says we need to remember the generation to come.

ACTION POINT:
You have an important job — to influence the lives of those who will come after you. Teach them to walk in the ways of the Lord and against the tide of the world.

This world is not our home......

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Colossians 3:1 - “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
First Peter 2:11 says that we are aliens and strangers in this world. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. We are twice-born in a world of once-born people, and we’re going to find ourselves going against the tide most of the time. It’s like a deep sea diver who is underwater and outside his natural environment. He could not live if he weren’t linked to his life supply above. That’s the way we need to live. If we are to survive, we must stay linked to Jesus who is our life. The Bible says we’re not to set our affections on things beneath, but on things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of the Father. (Colossians 3:1)

ACTION POINT:
It’s time to check your lifeline...are you trusting in anything in this world? Are you making friends with the things of this world?

Where do you go when YOU die ???

BIBLE MEDITATION:
2 Corinthians 5:8 - “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
A man named Solomon Peas died. His tombstone in London reads:
“Beneath these clouds and beneath these trees,
Lies the body of Solomon Peas.
But this ain’t Peas - it’s just the pod.
Peas shelled out and went to God.”
I like that. That’s what your body is. It’s just a pod. What happens to a child of God who has trusted Christ as his personal Savior? When he closes his eyes in this life, he opens them in the next. Jesus did not say, “After two or three thousand years, you’ll be with Me in paradise.” Jesus said, “Today, truly, you’ll be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

ACTION POINT:
Are you confident that, if you died today, you’d be with Jesus in paradise? If not, then confess your sins and believe upon His name to save you. Now, go and tell someone!

Do you believe in the Promise ?

BIBLE MEDITATION:
John 3:16 - “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Your soul, made in the image of God, will exist forever. I think Billy Sunday the evangelist said it this way. “Imagine a little bird taking a grain of sand and flying to a distant planet. It would take him a million years to fly to that distant planet. Then he would drop that grain of sand. Then the little bird would fly back to the earth taking him a million years. He gets another grain of sand and flies back to the distant planet. Back and forth, back and forth it goes. When he will have transplanted every speck of earth to that distant planet, it will only be breakfast time in eternity.” Your soul will go on, and on, and on.

ACTION POINT:
Where do you plan on spending eternity? Where do your loved ones plan on spending it? If you don’t know, ask them today and get their salvation on the right side of eternity.

How can we show the love of Christ ?

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Luke 6:35 - “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
I’ve seen bumper stickers that exhort us to “show random acts of kindness.” I think that’s a good thing. And what is kindness? It’s love in the little things. A woman came down the aisle of a church to give her heart to Christ, and the preacher wanted to know what had impacted her life for Christ. She said, “You did.” The pastor said, “Well, I’d be interested to know what it was that I said that brought you to Christ.” She said, “It was nothing you said. It was something you did. I was standing nearby when somebody criticized you very unfairly. I saw the kindness with which you responded, and I knew that your faith was real.”

ACTION POINT:
What random act of kindness can you do today that will demonstrate that your faith is real?

Should we show the lovingkindness of God in our lives ?

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Isaiah 63:7 - “I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
One time a man came into a village and asked an old man living there, “Any great men born here?” The old man said, “No, just babies.” Great men are not born; great men are made, investing in the lives of others, sharing God’s love, and showing His mercies. There is not a magic formula that instantly makes us sanctified. Sanctification is a process. Our calling is to be poured out into the lives of others for His glory.

ACTION POINT:
How can you show His mercies to a lost co-worker or neighbor today? Pray about it and then watch for how God provides!

Are you robbing God ??

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Malachi 3:10 - “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
You can say all you want about getting right with God, but if you don’t get right with God in your finances, you are not right with God. The kind of repentance that does not reach the bank account has never reached the heart. In Malachi 3:7, God says, “Return unto me, and I will return unto you.” And the people said, “Wherein shall we return?” God’s answer in verse 8 reveals that they were to return in tithes and offerings. The point of return is the point of departure. If you’re going to come back to God and if you’re going to renew your fellowship, you’re going to have to begin with the tithe.

ACTION POINT:
It’s time to put the good book to the checkbook! How are you doing in the area of your tithes and offerings to the Lord?

Pray for real preachers...

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Matthew 10:34 - “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
A pulpit committee approached me one time and said, “We need a pastor for our church.” I said, “I know just the guy. He is a fantastic preacher and has a fiery evangelistic spirit, but he has health problems and he’s kind of old.” I continued, “He’s also been in jail several times.” They began to shake their heads, and one said, “Well, we don’t know whether he’s the man we want or not.” I said, “Well, don’t worry; you couldn’t get him. He’s already in heaven, and his name is Paul.” You don’t want a guy who can rub shoulders with the people of this world and not rub any salt in their wounds. Where there is no offense, there is no effect.

ACTION POINT:
Pray for the men who occupy the pulpits in our churches that they would not water down the truth of God’s Word, but be strong to proclaim its power.

Does God still answer prayers ?

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Jeremiah 33:3 - “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
I read about some children in a Sunday School class who wrote a missionary to let him know that they were praying for him. The teacher of the class said, “Now children, the missionary is a very busy person, so don’t expect him to write you back.” One little girl’s letter read, “Dear Brother Brown, We’re praying for you. We don’t expect an answer.” Sadly, this is how we pray! We don’t really expect an answer. But God has promised He will answer us when we call upon His name. Psalm 91:15 says, “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him.”

ACTION POINT:
What are you praying for today? Do you believe that God can answer? Do you believe that He will answer? Thank Him now for answering.

Where do you stand ??

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Isaiah 5:20 - “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
People can become so warped in their thinking that they don’t know the difference between right and wrong. I was listening to the radio one morning, and they were talking about what scientists want to do with the tissue of aborted babies. They said that some women are thinking about having babies, aborting them, then selling the tissue for research. The scientific community is promoting this propaganda because of the good they say the research will have on the whole of humanity! But what about the whole of humanity that begins in the womb? People today will play enough tricks on their minds that they will literally approve evil with a good conscience.

ACTION POINT:
Where do you stand on this issue? What is right and what is wrong? Take some time this morning to read Psalm 139 and ask God to show you His truth.