Firm encouragement time! We all have countless opportunities for distraction: phones, TV, the internet, work, over-committing to activities at church or with friends... Everyone is fighting for your attention, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Too often, your spouse loses the fight.
Everyone needs to be reminded of the importance of attitude and how it effects the success of an organization and an individual.
There are two paths, the path of faith or the path of fear, choose one!
The cross of Jesus Christ unites the past with the presents.
Courage is not the absents of fear, courage is staying the course when you fear the most....
Another significant characteristic resulting from living by grace is that we become living letters of Christ. "You are manifestly an epistle of Christ." The Lord wants to turn our lives into a "walking and talking letter of Him." He wants to make us a living explanation of who Christ is and all that He offers. What a great opportunity this presents. As we go about our daily responsibilities, others are often "reading our lives." While they are observing us, they can actually be learning of the truth and love of our Lord Jesus, as He is working in and through our lives. Although this may sound like too much to hope for, the Lord declares in His word that this process can become very clear to those who are watching us: "You are manifestly [that is, "plainly recognized as"] an epistle of Christ."
I think we have a problem in the church today. Many people do not have the patience to wait upon God. We want everything instantly, and yet, there is a time of waiting, a time of praying and a time of fasting, so we can submit our lives to the will of God. Jesus is our example. Because He lived a life in constant communion with the Father and submitted to His will, He was able to withstand the temptations of Satan.
To be enterprising is to keep your eyes open and your mind active. It’s to be skilled enough, confident enough, creative enough and disciplined enough to seize opportunities that present themselves... regardless of the economy.
You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.
Decision making can sometimes seem like inner civil war.
I used to say, “I sure hope things will change.” Then I learned that the only way things are going to change for me is when I change.
Don't say, “If I could, I would.” Say, “If I can, I will.”
It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off! You cannot make progress without making decisions.
“The twin killers of success are impatience and greed.” – Jim Rohn
“Character is a quality that embodies many important traits, such as integrity, courage, perseverance, confidence and wisdom. Unlike your fingerprints that you are born with and can’t change, character is something that you create within yourself and must take responsibility for changing” – Jim Rohn
There are only two steps to success – discover your brilliance and perfect it. Doing this will allow you to receive the wealth you truly deserve. “The only waste of human resources is letting them go unused.”
Documentación Beats Conversación!
Rest assured: Do what God tells you to do now, and, depend upon it, you will be shown what to do next.
-- Elisabeth Elliot
Men give advice; God gives guidance.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
“Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny.”
-C.S. Lewis
Jesus wants you to have a heart like his. That is God’s goal for you. He wants you to think and act like Christ Jesus.
We can be transformed if we make one decision…submit our thoughts to the authority of Jesus!
The power of God is identified with His will; what He cannot do is what He will not do.
~Tertullian~
I hear more people say I have to pray about it than say I have to search the scripture. To pray about what the Lord has said is a slap in Jesus face. I guess I have to pray about not stealing........., Feeding the hungry, visiting the sick or edifying my brother or sister in Christ.
I love end times study but I know so many need to be saved still. This question was asked of me today by a pregnant sister who is young in her faith. If you are pregnant during the Rapture, what will happen to the baby in your stomach who isn't fully formed? I used, Mat 24:40 “Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.
I believe if the woman is unsaved the baby will be taken and the woman will be left behind. There is no scripture that backs what I told her just common sense based on what I do know.
As you move throughout your day God is placing people around you that need HOPE!
You were created to shine, and share His image to this world. Before every conversation will you be.......
Led by the Spirit
Ask sincere questions
Meet the need in front of you
Present Jesus
Suffering and Hardship are experienced by all...but only the Christian is able to discover HOPE in their situation, even if the circumstance never changes
Jason Powell
We are saved because what God uses to drag us to Himself is the overwhelming power of His love, mercy, and grace. We are compelled by His sacrifice on the cross, His patient loving-kindness, and the lengths to which He will go to draw us in.
Ray Bently
“It must not be tolerated that Christ should be unknown through our silence, and sinners unwarned through our negligence.”
C.H. Spurgin
“Feeling overwhelmed, and scrambling to get a better fix on the problem, they will do the only safe thing: they will pull back and assume the stance of objective analysts,”. “Naturally they will go about this in a very warm and godly way with the best of intentions. Yet, without realizing it, by their clinical theorizing, they are effectively withdrawing their human affections, their very friendship, at a time when intimate friendship is most needed.”
Mike Mason
“Life isn’t an accumulation of abstractions such as love and truth, sin and salvation, atonement and holiness; life is…names and fingerprints, street numbers and local weather, lamb for supper, and a flat tire in the rain. God reveals Himself to us not in a metaphysical formulation or a cosmic fireworks display but in the kind of stories we use to tell our children who they are and how to grow up as human beings…Story is the Gospel way. The story isn’t imposed on our lives; it invites us into its life…The Holy Spirit weaves all this storytelling into the vast and holy literary architecture that reveals God to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…to get this revelation right, we enter into the story.”
Eugene Peterson
"If God so loved you, ought you love those who treat you badly?" — Charles Spurgeon
"What is the whole earth, after all, compared with the greatness of God?" — Charles Spurgeon
"If your religion is a dead and formal thing, then you will soon depart." — Charles Spurgeon
"If you are not very prayerful, you are much to be pitied." — Charles Spurgeon
As sure as the Bible is true, God will not leave you." — Charles Spurgeon
"God loves you. He who made the heavens and the earth has set his heart's affection upon you." — Charles Spurgeon
"To follow your Savior, you must derive your life from him every day." — Charles Spurgeon
"May you forget, once for all, all ideas of doing anything to win the love of God." — Charles Spurgeon
"The Bible will often refuse to reveal its treasures until you open it with the key of prayer." — Charles Spurgeon
"Grace makes no man proud." — Charles Spurgeon
"Holy men would prefer life-long sickness to willful sin." — Charles Spurgeon
"We are content to be unknown with Christ in his humiliation, for we are to be exalted with him." — Charles Spurgeon
"You have pardoned; now purify, until every sin shall be destroyed within our hearts." — Charles Spurgeon
"Guard your thoughts well, for thoughts are heard in heaven." — Charles Spurgeon
"Every individual believer is precious in the sight of the Lord." — Charles Spurgeon
"God is not mere justice, stern and cold; he has a heart of compassion." — Charles Spurgeon
"Christ bids you come to him that he may make you whole." — Charles Spurgeon
"Preach the gospel, live the gospel, and teach children the Word of the Lord." — Charles Spurgeon
"A calm hour with God is worth a lifetime with man." — Charles Spurgeon
"A saint is often under a cross, but never under a curse." — Charles Spurgeon
"Prayer is the preface to blessing." — Charles Spurgeon
"Winners of souls are first weepers for souls." — Charles Spurgeon
"Believers in Jesus are receivers from Jesus." — Charles Spurgeon
"Be all for Christ, since he is all for you." — Charles Spurgeon
"Change not your faith with changing times." — Charles Spurgeon
"Carnal men love the god that they make, but not the God that made them." — Charles Spurgeon
"If we would successfully wrestle with Satan, we must make the Holy Scriptures our daily resort." — Charles Spurgeon
"The gospel is all about Christ from beginning to end." – Charles Spurgeon
"Forget a frowning world and serve a smiling God." — Charles Spurgeon
"Faith cannot die, nor can he die who has faith." — Charles Spurgeon
"Faith in God is reason acting reasonably." — Charles Spurgeon
"Christ is not loved at all if not loved above all." — Charles Spurgeon
Sanctification is the gift of the Holy Ghost, the fruit of the Spirit, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the prepared inheritance of all who enter in, the greatest obtainment of faith, not the attainment of works. AB Simpson
Let the Holy Spirit search your heart and reveal the truth He knows, and then be sure you respond and react by confessing your sins and receiving His forgiveness. Chuck Smith
Make sure you’re one who is engaged in consistent communion with the Lord personally. Jon Courson
David learned from his mistakes, repented of his sins, and paid dearly for some of them. But he always turned back to the Lord and cried out to Him for mercy and strength. Ray Bentley
If you need to, admit you’ve left your first love. Remember. Repent. Return.
If you refuse to deal with your pride, your pride will deal with you!
Look forward to tomorrow with ecstasy, because our Lord may come. Tomorrow, Christ may be on this earth. Spurgeon
In our work for God it is a great thing to find the key to men’s hearts, and recognize something good as a point of contact for our spiritual influence. AB Simpson
“When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place.” - C.S. Lewis
“There would be no sense in saying you trusted Jesus if you would not take his advice.” - C.S. Lewis
"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." – Mark Twain.
"The gospel is all about Christ from beginning to end." – Charles Spurgeon
The gospel, you know, is the means appointed by God to bring souls to an acquaintance with Christ, to an acceptance of Christ, to an interest in Christ, to an assurance that he is theirs, and they are his. - Thomas Brooks, Works i:lxi
Burk Parsons
Don't believe everything you feel. Our emotions are sometimes the greatest liars we know. Preach the truth to your emotions and the truth will begin to change your emotions by the power of the Spirit.
The glory of God always comes at the sacrifice of self. -A.W. Tozer -
Prophets [of the Bible] were not concerned with their pedigree. They were concerned with purity. -Leonard Ravenhill -
To a man who lives for God, nothing is secular, everything is sacred. Charles Spurgeon
“The Cross not only shows the love of God more gloriously than anything else, it shows His righteousness, His justice, His holiness, and all the glory of His eternal attributes. They are all to be seen shining together there.” - Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Every day brings us nearer to the coming of the Lord. Charles Spurgeon
He purchased grace to mortify sin, and to quicken us to the duties of holiness, that the love of sin might be weakened in our hearts, and we might be quickened to live to God in the Spirit. —Thomas Manton, Works 11.175
Not everyone who disagrees with you… - is a bigot. - hates you. - has a phobia. - is toxic. - is dangerous. Sometimes, people are willing to kindly share truth with you and disagree with you, because they actually love you enough to do so.
Better is one day with God than a thousand years without him. Charles Spurgeon
Don't struggle, sinner, after righteousness in your own strength. Fall back and rest in the infinite love of God in Christ Jesus. Charles Spurgeon
Modesty means to be free from undue familiarity, from indecency, from lewdness, pure in thought and conduct. Speaking of modest apparel, it means decent, seemly. The opposite of modesty is conceit, boldness, immodesty, brazenness, lewdness. Elisabeth Elliot
When a loved one dies, they don’t come back as a bluejay, butterfly, dog, kitten, or ghost to visit you. They are either present with the Lord, or absent from the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8 -10, Luke 16:19 - 31). Knowing Jesus here on earth is what determines eternity.
“It was Christ's exclusive prerogative to proclaim: ‘If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink.’ No other person is entitled to say this. For any other preaching it is befitting to do no more than point others to Christ, leading them to hear His words." - Martin Luther
“Jeremiah 3:6-10 is a reminder that before anyone condemns all divorce outright, we are reminded that God himself is divorced from the nation of Israel.” — Stephen L. Swartz
Where sin had brought men, love brought the Saviour. -A.W. Pink -
Grace is 'as much a communication of the Deity, as light [is] a communication of the sun.' -Jonathan Edwards -
‘I am not fit to take Communion, I really do not feel that I am good enough.’ The answer to them is this: ‘You will never be good enough.’ The Lord’s Supper is not for people who are good enough; it is for people who are not ‘under the law’ but ‘under grace.’ —D.M Lloyd-Jones
“To wake up in the morning was to be reminded of God’s constant care.” — Philip Graham Ryken
“When controversies puff up instead of build up, the Bible calls them ‘vain’ or ‘irrelevant.’ Once the battle is over, no one is closer to God or godliness.” — Kevin DeYoung
Nothing but Jesus can satisfy the soul. George Whitefield
Christian Parents, Sexual purity doesn't just apply to teenagers and college students. It applies to you, too. You set the example.
"The way to cover our sin is to uncover it by confession." Richard Sibbes
Backsliders begin with dusty Bibles and end with filthy garments. C.H. Spurgeon
If Jesus has not changed your life, the Jesus you met was another Jesus. Steve Lawson
“It’s not convincing to say you are a child of God if you have none of the characteristics of your Father.” Kevin DeYoung
“Salvation is God determined, God purchased, God applied, and God secured. From start to finish, salvation is of the Lord alone.” Steven Lawson
“I would hate my own soul if I did not find it loving God.” Augustine
The Bible will often refuse to reveal its treasures until you open it with the key of prayer. Charles Spurgeon
God looks upon a pardoned soul as if he had never sinned. Thomas Watson
“All God’s giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.” - J. Hudson Taylor
Whatever you read, read the Bible first. Beware of bad books - there are plenty in this day. Take heed what you read. -J.C. Ryle -
The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. -A.W. Tozer -
"REMEMBER TO BE THE HELP FOR OTHERS THAT YOU WISH OTHERS HAD BEEN TO YOU. ALWAYS PAY IT FORWARD!"
“The church is not holier and happier… In foolish controversies, the end result is that you feel better about yourself and (you hope) others feel better about you.” — Kevin DeYoung
Paul Washer
The only right standing before God that is promised in the Christian faith is through Christ alone. This being true, we must be resolute in holding to the Gospel and standing upon it.
1 in 6 Gen Z'ers identify as LGBTQIA+. However, most of the growth is with BTQ, while LG remains a small % with no growth. What do adults think is most likely? God created this generation differently, or there is a social contagion from a dangerous ideology confusing a whole generation? I’ll go with the latter.
Another significant characteristic resulting from living by grace is that we become living letters of Christ. "You are manifestly an epistle of Christ." The Lord wants to turn our lives into a "walking and talking letter of Him." He wants to make us a living explanation of who Christ is and all that He offers. What a great opportunity this presents. As we go about our daily responsibilities, others are often "reading our lives." While they are observing us, they can actually be learning of the truth and love of our Lord Jesus, as He is working in and through our lives. Although this may sound like too much to hope for, the Lord declares in His word that this process can become very clear to those who are watching us: "You are manifestly [that is, "plainly recognized as"] an epistle of Christ."
OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of pronouncing any verdict on the life of faith if you are not living it.
The strength of David’s story, says Eugene Peterson, is that “David deals with God. As an instance of humanity in himself, he isn’t much. He has little wisdom to pass on to us on how to live successfully. He was an unfortunate parent and an unfaithful husband. From a purely historical point of view, he was a barbaric chieftain with a talent for poetry. But David’s importance isn’t his morality or his military prowess but in his experience of and witness to God. Every event in his life was a confrontation with God.“
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