When you feel put-upon and your soul seems depleted, or when your life seems to have crazy days, know that what society offers is not the answer. It is in those times that you must turn to the Lord. He will hear you and while His answer may not be the removal of the craziness, He will give you comfort and is more than able to remove your fears in the midst of your troubles.
Walking with the Lord and serving other people in His name can be emotionally risky. You develop something of His heart for others, which translates into deep concern and caring. You will be drawn into others’ lives, rather than sitting on the sidelines watching. “To be a true minister to men is to accept new happiness and new distress,” wrote Pastor Phillip Brooks. “The man who gives himself to other men can never be a wholly sad man; but no more can he be a man of unclouded gladness. To him shall come with every deeper consecration a before untasted joy, but in the same cup shall be mixed sorrow that was beyond his power to feel before.” God will enlarge our hearts to love more, care more, and serve more. But some of us prefer the safety of a small heart; it minimizes sorrow.
If the presence of God is in the Church, the Church will draw the world in. If the presence of God is not in the Church the world will draw the Church out. ~Charles Finney~
When you exalt yourself remember it is a very long way down. I would also remind you that God can use a donkey! When the Lord wanted to rebuke the Prophet Balaam, what did God do? He used Balaam’s donkey to speak to him (Numbers 22:28-30).
Pride was the sin that changed angels into devils.
~Thomas Manton~
The inner life of a believer is an odd mixture of motivations, some spiritual, some selfish, as interwoven as the “joints and marrow” of our bodies. Even when we aspire to do well our motives may be flawed. The Word of God is living and full of energy and possesses the power to expose the intentions of our hearts and to reveal what is motivated by the Spirit and love—and what is not. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13).
Every gift reveals God’s love—but no gift reveals his love more than the gifts of the cross. They came, not wrapped in paper, but in passion. Not covered with ribbons, but sprinkled with blood. The gifts of the cross! Have you taken the time to open these gifts? If you do, perhaps you will hear him whisper, “I did it just for you.”
From He Chose the Nails
He paid a debt He did not owe
I owe a debt I could not pay
I needed someone to wash my sins away
We all are sinners with grace knocking at the door of our hearts, One thief asked for forgiveness the other rebelled. One day you will not be able to rebel anymore. Jesus will wait for you.
Put your faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ today. Today is the day of salvation.
The two thieves on each side of Jesus represent the world today;
1. You will be with the Lord in Heaven
2. or mock Him and go to hell and still one day every knee will bow and every tong confess Jesus is Lord. Jesus is saying to you, Who DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?
They Beat Him
Striped Him
Gave Him a reed as a scepter
Put a crown of thorns on His head
approx. 600 soldiers mocked Him
Took 39 stripes upon His back with a catnine tail
Plucked His Beard Out
Walked to His death uphill
Carried His cross of approx.200 plus pounds
Was Nailed to the Cross
Pierced by a spear
This is just some of what our Lord had to indoor.
“We are, not metaphorically but in very truth, a Divine work of art, something that God is making, and therefore something with which He will not be satisfied until it has a certain character. Here again, we come up against what I have called the “intolerable compliment.” Over a sketch made idly to amuse a child, an artist may not take much trouble: he may be content to let it go even though it is not exactly as he meant it to be. But over the great picture of his life—the work which he loves, though in a different fashion, as intensely as a man loves a woman or a mother a child—he will take endless trouble—and would doubtless, thereby give endless trouble to the picture if it were sentient. One can imagine a sentient picture, after being rubbed and scraped and re-commenced for the tenth time, wishing that it were only a thumb-nail sketch whose making was over in a minute. In the same way, it is natural for us to wish that God had designed for us a less glorious and less arduous destiny; but then we are wishing not for more love but for less.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Harmony means we make beautiful music together; it doesn't imply we always sing or play the same notes. This is where so many in Christian circles go wrong. They think we must all agree on every doctrinal issue or we can't worship together. More fellowship has been broken over minor topics related to form, rather than anything of substance. We should always begin and end our harmonies with and in Christ Jesus. Colossians 3:11: "Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all."
Most conflict resolution specialists start discussions by identifying similarities, not differences. Why? Because most of the time when we realize how close we are aligned on important matters, the disconnections seem minor. Ephesians 2:14: " For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility."
“Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” —Benjamin Franklin
“Poor or fuzzy communications are major time-wasters. Take the time to be crystal-clear in your communications with others.” — Brian Tracy
“The goal of effective communication should be for listeners to say, ‘Me, too!’ versus ‘So what?’” — Jim Rohn
“There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.” — Dale Carnegie
God doesn't just point us toward our destination--He is our destination. When we live a life in pursuit of God, His will becomes our only aim, and His provision our only need.
Today, take your eyes off the oceans of problems before you, make Jesus your destination, and, like Moses, "go forward."
"And the LORD said to Moses, 'Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.'"
Exodus 14:15
The real horror of being outside of Christ is that there is no
shelter from the wrath of God.
~Eric Alexander~
“All of our dreams can come true -- if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“All successful men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.” — Brian Tracy
“Hold on to your dreams for they are, in a sense, the stuff of which reality is made. It is through our dreams that we maintain the possibility of a better, more meaningful life.” — Leo Buscaglia
“To realize a dream, you must have a dream to realize.” — Mark Victor Hansen
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