"God loves each of us as if there were only one of us."— Augustine of Hippo
I've intentionally used a light approach to a serious subject -- temptation. Why? Because a dietary temptation is something most of us will acknowledge (versus lust, sexual immorality, gossip, idolatry, and the like). The point is our sin is our responsibility, not God's (or anyone else). I've heard many people say, "God made me this way, I can't help it." I've got news for you -- it's our failure alone. Why? Because God is faithful, we aren't. The Bible tells us (James 1:14): "...each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed." Therefore, temptation begins in the mind, with the desire.
"Let God's promises shine on your problems."— Billy Graham
Faith is the proper response to the promises of God. Also, our faith in God's promises can increase day by day, year by year.
Even if the truest answer to What holds the key to your heart? isn’t Jesus right now, do you want it to be? Do you want to want it to be? Let’s pray that today. Let’s be found captured by Jesus’ love, enthralled with His teachings, and living proof of His truth.
Jesus has the power to do the supernatural, the unthinkable, the impossible.
If you’re struggling right now, you’re in good company. If you’re relying upon His grace to get you through the day. If You need more of Him and more of His power and presence. He is with you.
God has provided us with many powerful tools through prayer, teaching, counseling, and especially the promises of His Word. The Scriptures teach so many wonderful encouragements and exhortations about living with our past, present, and future, especially the words of Jesus.
Are you worn out? Are you filled with sadness and depression? There is hope. But it isn’t in religion or in rules and regulations. It’s hope in Jesus Christ coming to live inside you. He can pardon you of every sin you’ve ever committed.
If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, then God has adopted you. Romans 8:14 tells us, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God” (NLT). Are you a child of God? That comes through believing in Jesus Christ.
Not everyone who dies goes to a better place. Only those who have been saved by Jesus do. That’s the real truth.
Things you’ll never regret: - talking to God - reading the Scriptures - sharing the Gospel
"YOU WOULDN'T BE SO JEALOUS OF THEIR BREAKTHROUGH IF YOU ONLY KNEW WHAT THEY'VE BEEN THROUGH!"
GOD HAS ALREADY WHISPERED YOUR NAME IN THE EAR OF WHO HE'S PREPARED TO HELP YOU.
JESUS HAS MANY LOVERS OF HIS CROWN, BUT SO FEW LOVERS OF HIS CROSS.
MANY FOLLOW JESUS TO THE BREAKING OF BREAD, BUT FEW FOLLOW HIM TO THE DRINKING OF THE CUP.
"YOU'LL NEVER SEE GOD'S PURPOSE FULFILLED IN YOUR LIFE IF YOU KEEP FOCUSING ON YOUR OWN PLANS."
"God's NOT Picking On You! GOD HANDPICKED YOU! That's Why You CAN'T Do What Everyone Else Does, Or Get Away With What Others Can. YOU Are a CHOSEN MASTERPIECE, MESSINESS DOES NOT BECOME YOU!"
"JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE AN OPINION, DOESN'T MEAN IT NEEDS TO BE SHARED....ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S NOT RELEVANT, REQUESTED NOR REQUIRED."
Sin is mighty and powerful, but grace is far superior in riches and abundance.
Herman Bavinck
As long as Christ sits on the throne, every day is a good day.
A.W. Tozer
God has provided us with many powerful tools through prayer, teaching, counseling, and especially the promises of His Word. The Scriptures teach so many wonderful encouragements and exhortations about living with our past, present, and future, especially the words of Jesus.
Truly, no one would be able to see Christ in his glory and majesty unless you have first seen yourself in your degradation and shame.
~C.H. Spurgeon~
Don’t underestimate the devil. He’s a sly and skillful foe. And he has had many years of experience honing his craft.
With every storm? Drop anchor in Jesus once again! He is our source of hope!
The cure for worry is one word: trust. Trust in our Heavenly Father, in His love and caring provision.
In between the First and Second Coming of Jesus Christ is a very narrow line––a small period of time called “Jacob’s Trouble”––the Great Tribulation Period (Jeremiah 30:7). Right now we are living in the last days, the end of the final 2000-year period. When 1,993 years are reached, the last 7 years of the world’s history will begin––the Tribulation Period. Right now the Church is restraining the Antichrist, but when the Church is taken out of this world, the Holy Spirit will work upon the nation of Israel (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8). Raul Ries
Kindness, helping, and considering others first show them the love of Jesus!
As men we tend to know the word, even study it but doing it takes time and discipline, making the right choices even when the world is against you.
God gave us legs to walk and stand but not stand alone. Stand, walk, or run but do something.
Virtue cannot separate itself from reality without becoming a principle of evil.
Albert Camus
Never mess up on what is permanent for something that is temporary! God will forgive you but there is no guarantee your spouse will....
Church growth is never about numbers but healthy sheep breed healthy lambs. Growth is personal just as our relationship with the Lord but He gave us Matthew 28:16-20 - The Great Commission
Every saved person is on a mission trip. It may be your family, friend, or neighbor.
When God is glorified people are drawn....
We have to move beyond doing church, we have to be the church of Jesus Christ.
Evangelize or Fossilize with or without you God's work will be done!
God has a plan and purpose for His people, including you and I. He will accomplish it one way or another, with or without our cooperation.
God’s cause is never in danger; what He has begun in the soul or in the world He will complete unto the end.
~B.B. Warfield~
DON'T LET THINGS BECOME COMMON
DON'T GET COLD
DON'T BECOME CALLUS
Traits of our Lord are He loved, He comforts, He wept, and He served others!
Listen to people
walk gently around a broken heart
Speak wisely
Pay attention to them
When God is in your life there is no if, only when and what's next!
Love hears!
Love Waits!
Love Risk!
Love Comforts!
MINISTRY IS EVERY DAY AND MOST OF ALL RIGHT NOW, THIS DAY!
“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
― C.S. Lewis
YOU CAN'T REACH EVERYBODY BUT YOU CAN REACH SOMEBODY!
THE PEOPLE CLOSEST TO YOU WILL ALWAYS BE THE HARDEST TO REACH. BE PATIENT.
Many Christians take the negative approach of fighting to overcome the flesh in order to experience the power of the Spirit. A more positive approach is to focus on conforming our lives to God's Word (walking in the Spirit). When we do so, the sinful nature loses its grip and influence as a result of neglect.
You can tell a lot about somebody from their social media.
We shall be changed! The perishable raised imperishable; the mortal becoming immortal; weakness giving way to power; the natural to the spiritual. When Christ comes, we shall be changed!
~A.W. Tozer~
“I’m not surprised by vice. I’m surprised by virtue. Classical Christianity has always had a negative view of human nature…people are broken and fallen and frail. People plod along and make mistakes. But there is a message to all guilt-ridden humanity: there is saving grace and there can be release from that guilt, shame, and sin.” — Michael Cromartie
God often uses little acts of kindness in our lives to bring about His plan. Do something for someone today, entrusting outcomes to the Lord…and intercede for them, praying that they will not follow their own passion or reasoning, but instead be submissive to God’s will.
salvation is much more than merely a ticket to heaven. Rather, it is an invitation to participate fully and wondrously in God’s new heaven and new earth. But it starts now as a servant right where you are.
God fits our souls here to possess a glorious body after, and he will fit the body for a glorious soul.
~Richard Sibbes~
Never rob your team members of the blessing of knowing that you notice and that you care
Each of us has unique gifts and talents that we enjoy using. God can use them, too, in order to fulfill His will in our lives.
Nobody is born into this world a child of the family of God. We are born as children of wrath. The only way we enter the family of God is by adoption, and that adoption occurs when we are united to God’s Only Begotten Son by faith.
~R.C. Sproul~
No matter how hard we try we are all still sinners. We can, like Paul, do our best to live honestly and in good conscience before the Lord. However, if that were enough we would have no need for a Savior. I still need Jesus.
“Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us . . . but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep in the bosom of Christ.”
Oswald Chambers
“Are you looking unto Jesus now, in the immediate matter that is pressing, and receiving peace from Him? If so, He will be a gracious benediction of peace in and through you. But if you try to worry it out, you obliterate Him.”
Oswald Chambers
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
~Fanny Crosby~
I hate it when people say, But What If! Come on people!
By salvation I mean barely according to the vulgar notion deliverance from hell of going to heaven but a present deliverance from the sin of the soul to its primitive health its original purity a recovery of the divine nature the renewal of our souls after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness…
~John Wesley~
I’d rather limp the long way with God than run the shortcut
without Him.
The love to which Jesus calls believers even loves those who nail us to a cross.
Dustin Benge
Worry is a disease that robs you of your vitality, your enthusiasm for living, and even your health. Medical doctors and psychologists agree that many ailments, aches, and pains are caused by something much less tangible, the anxiety of the soul. "the torments of grief you endured, from evils that never arrived.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Anxiety is not only a pain which we must ask God to assuage,” but also a weakness we must ask Him to pardon – for He’s told us to take no care for the morrow.”
C.S. Lewis
“Nothing can bring a real sense of security into the home except true love”
~Billy Graham~
“It is always simple to fall; there is an infinity of angles at which one falls, only one at which one stands.”
G. K. Chesterton
Most give lip service to the concept of wanting God's will for their life, but how many truly seek His will? How many actually follow Him?
"Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture, and to let it be sucked up into your very soul, till it saturates your heart." —
Charles Spurgeon
Kindness, helping, and considering others first show them the love of Jesus!
With every storm? Drop anchor in Jesus once again! He is our source of hope!
Don’t underestimate the devil. He’s a sly and skillful foe. And he has had many years of experience in honing his craft.
Truly, no one would be able to see Christ in his glory and majesty unless you have first seen yourself in your degradation and shame.
~C.H. Spurgeon~
God has provided us with many powerful tools through prayer, teaching, counseling, and especially the promises of His Word. The Scriptures teach so many wonderful encouragements and exhortations about living with our past, present, and future, especially the words of Jesus.
As long as Christ sits on the throne, every day is a good day.
A.W. Tozer
Sin is mighty and powerful, but grace is far superior in riches and abundance.
Herman Bavinck
What are you afraid of? Panic will often paralyze you! It fills our hearts with hesitancy, our minds with uncertainty, as our eyes are clouded by anxiety?
There is a way to change our perspective…
1. Praise- Take time right now to thank Him. Sing in your struggle. Remind yourself by rehearsing in song. 2. Promise- Living in lies or truth both take belief. Believe what God has already said. Receive it, this is for you not just your friend. The power over panic is in His proclamation! Be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:9) I will fear no evil (Psalm 23:4)
Of whom shall I be afraid (Psalm 27:1) He delivered me from my fears (Psalm 34:4-8)
God is our refuge and our strength (Psalm 46:1-3) When I'm afraid, I trust in You (Psalm 56:3-4)
If we glory in the past, live in the past, and talk about the past, our past becomes an idol.
We must not be disobedient to a heavenly vision. We must not spend our years in daydreams, nor in seeking comfort; but must be incessant in uttering the cry, “What wilt Thou have me to do?” FB Meyer
If you don't heed the voice of God, you will end up hardening yourself to hearing God. Chuck Smith
God has provided us with many powerful tools through prayer, teaching, counseling, and especially the promises of His Word. The Scriptures teach so many wonderful encouragements and exhortations about living with our past, present, and future, especially the words of Jesus. Ray Bentley
It is love that causes God to be so patient and longsuffering with the wicked, giving opportunity after opportunity for them to turn, to repent, to change. Chuck Smith
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