Get Rich Quick: Count Your Blessings

Lamentation 3:22-23
Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassion never fail. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness.

A SIGN IN FRONT OF A CHURCH READS, Get rich quick: Count your blessing! " Interested in hitting the jackpot? Sit down and ponder the goodness of God and what He has already bestowed on you.
   In St. Petersburg, Russia a special needs orphanage. In this home were 90 children  cared for by compassionate, caring staff members. The goes like this; I heard the plea from the director who shared with me the challenges of feeding and clothing the youngster amidst a shrinking budget. It made me feel ashamed of what I take for granted and what I spend on things that don't really make difference.
   Take a few moments block out the heartaches and focus on family, friends and valued relationships.
   When you take inventory of what God has given to you, you will discover riches you had no idea are within your grasp. Most of us today fail to recognize the blessing that come from the hand of God. We are much like those of whom the psalmist wrote, "They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt" (Psalm 106:21).
  Our parents, or perhaps your grandparents, used to sing a Gospel song written by Johnson Oatman Jr. The chorus reads, "Count your blessing, name them one by one; Count your many blessing; see what God has done." Focusing on what God has done for you--rather than what you want from Him--is medicine for soul. It will do more to lift you from your doldrums than winning the lottery, because the blessings of the Almighty remain when everything else fades.

Inner man.

EPHESIANS 3:16
...that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.

Real strength is found in what Paul called "the inner man." He understood that life is to be lived from within the inner man. To be strengthened through God's Spirit in the inner man is to experience the  ministry of the Spirit of Christ within us, living each moment in recognition that He alone is our source of life.
  It's from the inside that the indwelling Christ will transform you. It's so easy to get it backward. Legalistic religion seeks to reform us from the outside, stressing that if we will simply behave in certain ways we will be changed. The effect of legalism is always the same. Jesus said people might clean up well on the outside, but on the inside, still be full of filth.
  Refuse to fall into the self-help perversion of grace that would tell you that you need to improve what you do outwardly to facilitate inward change. The indwelling Christ is capable of  hanging you from the inside out. Protect and nature your inner life, and outward actions will fall into line

SHOUT YOUR VICTORY ALWAYS

2 Corinthians 2:14
Thank be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ.

The Bible says that your Father always causes you to triumph in Christ. Either it is true that you always triumph, or it isn't. The Scripture isn't ambiguous on this subject. If you assume the identity of "failure" when you don't achieve the outcome you hope for, you are setting yourself up for chronic Deception and, consequently, continuous defeat. Your success rests in the fact that Jesus Christ is the source of your life. You will never be a failure because Divine DNA flows from your spirit.
  Armed with the knowledge that you can't be a failure, you are in the unique position of being able to attempt great things. If you truly believe you could never be a failure, what would you attempt? The apostle Paul wrote, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  The same- is true of you.
   Does that mean that things will always turn out exactly the way you want? No. What it does mean is that no matter what the result is, you can move forward Knowing that no temporary failure defines who you are. In fact, it is often true that apparent failure are not actual failures. They may actually be tools in the hands of God intended to teach us, strengthens us, and guide us into His perfect plan. So Shout your victory always.

The Deception of Pragmatism when

Psalm1:6
For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

TODAY WE ARE IN THE MIDST of a culture war and the more than  softwares piracy or the bending of the truth when it suit us.
Many people say: "if it work, do it; if you can get away with why not?  This kind of reasoning has engulf our society, our generation like fog that gradually drift in obscuring our vision and blighting our lives. Pragmatism has blurred what is right and wrong, made gray what is black and white.
Our culture today is one based on pragmatism, a philosophy founded by psychologist William James who in the year 1907, posed this situation: "Granting an idea or belief to be true, what concrete difference will it's being true make in anyone actual life? What experiences will be be different from those which would obtain if the belief were false? What, in short, is the truth's cash-value in experiental terms?"' pragmatism means truth is not absolute but is subject to changing situations and circumstances. Somehow, it depends on how you feel about the
But you can be easily swept away by the tide.of pragmatism when anchor for your soul. You end up in bondage of the worst kind and you become engulf in a darkness that traps you.
You're got to decide whether you will allow yourself to be influenced by the moral relativism of pragmatism. You need to choose between that which feels good anything that you can get away with, or walking the narrow path God has paved, yet only few take. Choose carefully.

SET against SICKNESS

MARK 16:17,18
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues: They shall take up serpents: and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall re-cover.

Let's stop and analyze something here. Just which of the sick did Jesus say we were to lay hands on?
Jesus just said "the sick"-- period.
Then, if God were the author of sickness-- if God did put sickness and disease on people-- if it were the will of God for some to be sick this statement would be confusing. Because in it, Jesus authorized us to lay hands on All sick.
If God weren't in the healing business, Jesus would have had to say something like, "Lay your hands on those that it is the will of God to heal, and they shall re-cover. And those it isn't-- they won't re-cover."
But, no! God set the Church against sickness--- period!

To Usward

Psalm 40:5
Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which thou hast done, Thy thoughts which are to us-ward. . . .

Did you notice this phrase in Ephesians 1:19,. . . the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe. . . ?
All the demonstration of the glory of God shown in the manifestation of His omnipotence pointed to man ---"you as ward. "
The Cross of Christ--- with what is revealed of obedience to God atonement for sin, and crushing defeat for the enemies of divine authority shows us a representative Man.
Christ was our Representative, our Substitute overcoming for mankind and preparing a throne and a heavenly ministry for those who should overcome through Him
The source of our authority is therefore found in the resurrection and seating of Christ by God. In the Book of Ephesians, we learn that God wants the Church to gain revelation knowledge of all that this means to us.

Lord. Teach us to pray

Luke 11:1
And it came to pass, that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of His disciple said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray. . . .

Someone said, "It is more important that men learn to pray than they gain a college education." Notice he did not say that having an education is not important: he said,thay learning to pray is more important.
  I feel sorry for  people who don't know how to pray. When the crisis of life come, they know how to say words-- but just spouting off words into the atmosphere isn't praying! Simply talking into the air is not praying. Taking up twenty minutes on a the Lord celebration service. Morning devotion, corporate prayer men should prayed. Relationship work. Abide! Believers are in touch with the living God. I need more to prayed. Prayer is talking to God 

RAISED TOGETHER

EPHESIANS 1:19,20;2:1
And what is the exceeding greatness of His power. . . . Which he wrought in Christ, WHEN HE RAISED HIM from the dead, AND SET HIM at his own right hand in the heavenly places.... AND YOU hath he quickened, who were dead in trespass and sins.

Open your Bibles to Ephesians 2:1 A king James Version will look something like this.
CHAPTER 2
  AND you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
 When a word is italicized in the King James Version,that means the word is not in the original manuscript; the translators have added it. So the  original reads, "And you who were dead in trespasses and sins."
  I wanted you to see that the verb that controls Ephesians 2:1 is back in Ephesians 1:20! (Paul didn't write in chapters and verse; men divided Paul's writings later for easy reference.) Our text today makes it clearer for you. Notice the capitalized words:"... WHEN HE [GOD] Raised Him [Christ from the dead.... AND [raised] YOU... Who were dead tress passes and sin. "The same verb that expresses the reviving of Christ's people! So the mighty act of God which raised Christ from the dead also raised His Body! 

How God uses injustices of life

GENESIS 50:20
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

LIVING IN A BROKEN WORLD can sometimes create spiritual skeptics in our lives, especially when we see human failure mirrored in the lives of those whom we have put on pedestals, considering them to be a cut above the ordinary. When you are disappointed you wonder, "Is there anyone who really lives out the life of Christ, instead of simply using a Christian vocabulary?"
  God uses human failure whether it is the failure of fellow christians who negatively impact your life or the failures of those living on the other sides of the cross to accomplish what He wants done in your life.
  God is sovereign. He is in control, and everything that happens to you is not a matter of chance but something that God allows. Why? To show you His strength, His hand of protection, His provision in ways that would not have happened had you not been a victim of someone's wrong doing.
  From the beginning of time God has chosen to walk with His Own through a corrupted sinful world, promising to be with them as they go through the dark valley but never promising to deliver them from the impact of all wrong to this world.
   If you could only see the center picture of how God's strong hand is resting on your life, sustaining you, showing you that you will never be in a pit deeper?
than His hand can reach, how difficult our attitude would be when unpleasant things happen to us. Only through difficulty do we learn what God told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness" 2(Corinthians12:9).

PERMITTED

Matthew 18:18
Verily I say unto you whenever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound on heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loose in heaven. 

Many things exist because believers permit them to—they just don't do anything to change these situations.
   Year ago, when I was meditating and studying about the authority believer have, I sensed the Lord challenging me. At that time, I had been praying for about fifteen years for older brother to be saved. I had often prayed and fasted three days at a time for his salvation---but he would get worse instead of better. I'd pray, "God save him. God save him." But nothing ever happened As I lay across the bed studying on this particular day, I heard the Lord in my spirit. He challenged me: "you do something about that situation. You've got the authority. You've got my Name!"
   I rose up off that bed and said, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I break the power of the devil over older Nelson in the name of Jesus. Three weeks later I heard he was born again.

YOU Can Do IT

Luke 8:22-25
Now it come to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciple; and he said unto them, Let us go over unto other side of the lake.  And they launched forth. But as they sailed he fell asleep; and there came down a storm of wind on the lake and they were filled with water, and in jeopardy. And they came to him, and awake Him saying, Master, Master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the rage going of water; and they ceased and there was calm. And he said unto them, where is your faith?...
   John Alexander Dowie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and moved to Australia as a young man. About 1875, while Downey was Pastoring a congregational church in Newton, Austrialia, a terrible plague swept through that part of the country. It was during this plagued that Dowie  first received light on divine healing and the authority that believers possess.
   I read that Dowie once said, "I have crossed the ocean  fourteen times by ship. During those fourteen crossing, many storms arose. But every time a storm came  up, I always did like Jesus did: I rebuked that storm.  And every single one ceased."
   Dowie knew that Jesus had said, "He that believe on me, the works that I do shall he do also..." Dowie knew that he was linked up with God. You and I are linked up with God just as much as Dowie or anybody else ever was. 

Handling Human FAILURE

2 Timothy4:9-10
Do your best to come to me quickly, for Dimas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.

A Friend who apparently had unfairly laid off from Christian ministry where she worked wrote, "I know God is sovereign and sees it all, but that doesn't mean you don't feel the pain of loss."
  I have no doubt the friend who wrote will eventually see beyond the human failure and the lack of compassion of her employer who acted more like a shrewd businessman. Yet when you are disappointed by individual whom you have respected and looked up to, you are confused and angry at the same time.
  But the most important issue is not the person's failure, it is how you handle the disappointment. What do you do? Draw back into your cave of disappointment? Lash out at the apparent failure? Or do you say, "perhaps I've expected too much from [whoever treated you harshly]"? You can also count your blessings, thanking God that He knows your heart and understands.
  And are you ready for this? Eventually you move on, forget about the failure, forgive the person who wrong you and refuse to catalog the grievances you have. Forgiveness is all part of the formula that is necessary to move the beyond the disappointment of human failure. While it is not easy, it's the ultimate solution
  When God allows a door to close, don't try to pry it open. Realize that a Sovereign God will use the human failure of others to help accomplish what He wants to do in your life. He has something better in storefront you. Trust Him and wait for Him to put you where He wants you. Meanwhile, find refuge in the Lord He'll never disappoint you. 

WEALTHY IS RELATIVE

Matthew 6:25
"That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life whether you have enough food and drink, or enough cloth to wear isn't life more than food, and your body more than clothing?"

IT WAS ON A TRIP into a Kenya tribal area to set up an optimetric clinic that Dr. Rob Henslick heard his driver say as they glanced out the window, "These people are wealthy," They were driving in Rift Valley, one of the most fertile areas of Kenya. At first Rob though, He's not seeing what I've just seen--small, very humble mud houses covered with cow dung to keep the mosquitoes out, women carrying water from the river, red, dusty, roads, and barefooted kids playing in the street.
 "How is it you say they are wealthy?" Dr. Rob asked. His driver said "well, they have cow, a herd of goats and a farm and they can live off the land. These people are considered wealthy in Kenya." And he was right. Wealthy is relative.
  Contentment and wealthy are not corollary especially they don't run side by side. If they did, those who are materially rich would be content. Neither is it true that those who have barely enough to buy rice or bread would be happy. Contentment has far more to do with your attitude than your resources.
  When soldiers approached Jesus, thinking that He would side with them against the government who paid them poorly, He told them, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely be Content with your pay" (Luke 3:14). Paul, whose life was difficult, wrote to the Philippians and said that he had learned to be content in any and every situation.
  Contentment doesn't depend on what you have as much as what you really are and what you have within. The great treasures that make for contentment are those of soul, which come by knowing Jesus Christ.

FROM SINNER TO SAINTS

1Corinthians 6:19
You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body

SOME 40 MILES FROM ROME, strategically located between the Aegean and the Mediterranean, lay the beautiful city of Corinth. Unlike Athens, where there were family connections and traditions, Corinth was a new city with fast money and loose morals. In Paul's day to call somebody a Corinthian was derogatory or debasing--a perjorative term that could make someone fighting mad.
   Paul's words to the Corinthians were at times straight forward, even blunt. He left no room for wondering what God expect of his own. For example, consider what he said: "Do you know that the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither securely in moral nor idolatry nor adulterer nor made prostitutes nor homosexuality offenders nor thrives nor greedy nor drunkards nor slanders nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God." Yet he doesn't stop there He adds, "And that is what some of you were, but you washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God" (Corinthians 6:9-11).
   Do you see the beauty of what Paul is saying? He no longer views them as being immoral, prostitutes, thieves, drunkards, or swindlers, but as saints---ones who have been redeemed, He calls them "saints" —-ordinary people who have been redeemed and have entered to fellowship with God's own Son, Jesus Christ.
   Paul further wrote, "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong! and that is what it takes today to live as the redeemed in a world of moral failures and licentiousness.  It's the life that you live that speaks to the world about relationship in christ Jesus. 

SAYING THE SAME THINGS

HEBREWS 4:1
Seeing then that we have a great high Priest, that is passed into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession (confession).

The Greek word translated "Profession" here is translated "confession elsewhere in the king James Version. The literal Greek meaning of this word is "to speak the same thing. So instead of saying, "Let us hold fast our confession" we could say, ''Let us hold fast our speaking the same thing," Notice that words are involved here.
  The thing that defeat many people  is that they have a double confession. One time they confess one thing, and the next day they confess something else.
   For example, they may say to you. "Yes, the Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want.  According to Philippians 4:19. My God shall supply all my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus - - and I'm believing God to supply my needs.
   But when they leave you and meet somebody else, their mind may revert back to their problems, so they'll say, "we're not doing so good. WE CAN'T pay our phone bill. We're going to have to take the phone out. And it even look like we're going to to lose our car..."
   What about that first confession they made? It was nullify by the second.
 
  

Trust in Jesus

Romans 8:37
Nay  in all these things we are more than conqueror through him that love us.

If God's Word had just told us that we were conquerors, it would have been enough---but it tells us that we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ.
  Rather than saying "I'm defeated," rise up and say what Bible study about you. Say, "I am a conqueror!"
  It may not seem to you that you are a conqueror, but your confession of it because of what you see in God's Word will create the reality of it in your life.
   Sooner or later you will become what you confess!
  You will not be afraid of any circumstances, if you make the right confession.
You will not be afraid of any disease. If you make the right confession.
You will not be afraid of any condition. If you make the right confession.
You will face life fearlessly as a conqueror! Lord my prayers I will trust in you. i will trust You Jesus
 
  

Dying to live

Matthew 16:25
Whoever wishes to save his life for My sake will find it.

The dynamics of your grace walk are very different from the attempt to live independently. Most people think that achieving the quality of life they want requires several types of effort; building up what they can in any way they can, preserving their assets, and pushing toward increase. That's not how things work in the kingdom of God.
   Jesus said that If you want to save your life, you will lose it---but if you lose your life for His sake you will find it. That sounds backwards to human reasoning, but that's the way it really is. We gain by giving up.
   This principle of self-sacrifice is the natural order in the world of grace. We die to live. We become weak to experience strength. We are brought down to be raised up. We give away and then to have more. Do you see how God's way of grace works?
   The key is to abandon all ideas of self--preservation and cast yourself completely into the hands of the One who alone has the abilities to determine your future. Lay down your life for His glory and begin to readily live lifestyle. 

NOW!

James 4:7
...Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Every passage in the New Testament that deals with the devil always instructs you and me to do something about the devil. Never are New Testament believers told to pray that God would do something about the devil!

  Here in James 4:7 "you" is the understood subject of the sentence. ''you Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Notice it's not, "pray to God for Him to do something about the devil," Not it is, "pray that Jesus won't let the devil get you."

   Also notice that the Bible doesn't say, "When you feel like it, you can resist the devil, and it will work for you.," No. Whether you feel like it or not the authority still belongs to you. You can't feel authority you just exercised it!

   I once sensed in my spirit that there was special significance about the word "flee" in James 4:7. In a huge dictionary zi found the definition that seemed to fit what my spirit called for: "To flee: to run from as in terror,"

  Act on James 4:7. Don't just consider it as a fairly tale. But as the Word of God, which is to be acted upon. If you'll act on it, the devil and all his cohort will run from you as in terror!  Sayest, Now!

Stripped

2:15
And having spoiled principality and power, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

The Bible teaches us here that Jesus put Satan to nough and He triumphed over him. Another translation reads, "He stripped him." What did He strip Satan of? His authority over man.
And the hostile princes and rulers He shook off from Himself and boldly displayed them as His conquest. .. (Weymouth).
When Jesus put Satan to nought and stripped him of his Authority, it was you in Christ who did the work. Christ acted in your steadily in your place. He did it for you.
   What Jesus Christ did was marked to your credit. He did it as your substitute. (He did it in your place, and God marked it to credit as though you were the one who did it!).
  No, we're not bragging about what you are in the flesh. (You don't amount to much in the flesh.) We're taking about who you are in Christ. 
You can say, "In Christ, I conquered Satan. I stripped him of his Authority, And when Jesus arose from the dead, I arose with Him!"

Imaginary friend?

James 2:23
Abraham believe God. . .and he was called the friend of God.

Not long ago, I heard about this billboard along the highway: "God is an imaginary friend---choose reality. It will better for all of us."
   Obviously; the bold statement compares Christian to children whose vivid imaginations invent a make believe companion. But is that what God is--an imaginary friend?
    Actually, the evidence favors His reality ponder this ideas. The creation of the world shows there is a designer behind the universe (Roman 1:18-20). The conscience indicates a Lawgiver behind each human's sense of right and wrong (Romans 2:14-15). The creativity we expresses in music and art reflect the same attribute that the creator possesses (Ex.35:31-32). Christ's reveals what God is like in human form (He.1:2-4). And the communion or fellowship of the Holy spirit in the Christian heart manifests the reality of God (Gal. 5:22-23).
    The Bible tells us there will be those who deny the reality of God (2 Peter 3:4-6). But James reminds us His reality and how an old Testament believers befriended Him:" Abraham believe God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' And he was called the friend of God" (James 2:23). Have you met the redeeming God? He gave His Son to become your real eternal friend (John 15:15).

John 1:14
The Word become fresh and dwelt among us.

A young girl in Africa gave her teacher a Christmas gift. It was a beautiful seashell. "Where did you get this?'' she asked. The child told her that such shells are found only on a certain faraway beach.
   The teacher was deeply touched, because she knew that the girl had walked many miles to find the shell.
'You shouldn't have to traveled do far just to find a gift for me," she said. The girl smiled and replied, "The long walk is part of the gift."
   This girl, wise beyond her years, probably didn't know that she was conveying a truth about Jesus Christ. He gives the wonderful gift of eternal life to all who believe in Him (Romans (6:23). It's a treasure that carries with it forgiveness of all our sins, and God's never failing love (Romans 8:28-39).
   Christ's gift also began with a journey. He left the splendors of heaven to come to our sins-drenched earth. He took upon Himself our humanity (John1:14) and walked the long road to the cross. There He bore our sins and all its penalty. And when I say to Him in gratitude. "it's too much, Jesus. You shouldn't have done it,'' I can picture Him looking at me with love-filled eye and saying tenderly, ''The journey is part of the gift.''

Fulfilled Promises

2 Corinthians 1:20
As many as are the promises of God in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.

You stand in a much better place today than old Testament saints ever knew. They lived by the promises of God, but you don't. Today's verse shows that God made many promises and that they are all fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He is final "yes!" to all that the Father has promised.
   Speaking of the saints of old, the Bible says, All these, having grained approved through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
   They didn't see all God's promises fulfilled in their lifetime, but your Father has," provided something better" for you.
   You have Jesus in you. Every promise of God has been fulfilled in Him. Your only response is to say "Amen" which means 'yes' to those fulfilled promises. You aren't standing on the promises. You are seated on the premises of fulfilled promises of Christ.
  

Analogy

Collossians 1:18
And he the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first born from the dead; that in all things be might have the preeminence.

This is where we believers have missed it! We've recognized that Jesus is the Head of the Church, and We've exalted Him to His position of power, all right. But We've failed to see that the Head is wholly depended upon its body for carrying out its plans. We've failed to see that we are seated with  Christ in heavenly places. We've failed to see that Jesus has authority over Satan's power of this authority is ever exercised, it will have to be exercised through the body. We've been so sure that we couldn't do anything, that we've left everything up to Christ the Head of the Church and the Head is powerless without the body.
   Take your own physical head as an example. It is powerless to carry out any of its plans without the cooperation of the body. Your head might see a songbook on a rack in front of you, but unless your body cooporates, your head will never be able to sing from the book.
    The ministry God wants to accomplish through His Son in this world will be carried out through the Body of Christ And we the Body of Christ have the same authority the Head has!

YOUR INNER THOUGHTFUL PRAISES

PSALM 143:5
I remember the days of old:I meditate on all Your works; I muse on the work of Your hands.

Most of us long to praise God more joyfully than we do. One common hindrance is that no matter how hard we try, we often don't feel like praising Him.
  Bible teacher Selwyn Hughes says that God has placed within us three main functions; the will, the feelings, and the thoughts. Our will, he says, has little or no power over our feeling, You can't say, "I am going to feel different," and then accomplish it by sheer willpower. What the feelings do respond to our thoughts. Quoting another source, Hughes says: our feeling follow our thoughts like baby ducks follow their mother." So how can we make our thoughts the leader of our feelings?
   David showed us the way in Psalm 143. Feeling overwhelmed and distressed (v. 4), he took time to think about the Lord (v. 5). He remembered God loving-kindness, trustworthy, and guidance (v.8). His Proctection and goodness (vv9;10). His righteousness and mercy (vv. 11;12). Once David got going, his feelings began to follow his thoughts.
   Na

Beginning a New Day

GENESIS 1:5
God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

If you were asked to name the parts of a day, what would you say? Most people would list morning, afternoon and night. But that's not the way the Bible identified a day. When God create all things, the scriptures indicate that the evening came first  in a new day.
   Most people think new days begin when things start to get light. God doesn't order a full day that way.
The Jewish faith remains recognizes that although the Sabbath is Saturday, it begin at sunset on Friday evening. That is the start of the new day---the Sabbath Day.
   If things seem to be getting darker in your life, be encouraged that this may be the beginning of new Day in life. We all like to see the light begin to Shine, but remember that your Father starts a new time when it begin to get dark.
   Don't become discouraged if you have prayed for Him to work in your circumstances and it seem things are getting darker. That may point to the answer to your prayer. Just keep trusting him, and in His time, the light will Shine again.

Give God Your Dreams

Matthew 16:26
What food will it be for man if he gains the whole, world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

HE WAS A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN with a good family, Involved in his church, he had reached, he began thinking if God was calling him to do this full-time.
    That's when the battles began. ''How could I do this full-time when I haven't realized all of my dreams and goal in the business world? he thought. Can you relate to this mans' struggles?
   Unrealized goals and aspiration can keep you chained to your less noble dream and hinder you from moving to a level of significant in life. When Christ calls you to serve Him, He attaches no prerequisites to His invitation.
   The problem is that our culture's definition of success as equal to money, position, powerful so penetrated our thinking that we need to reprogram ourselves from it. Success is not money, power or fame. Rather, true success is seeking finding and doing the will of God for your life.
   The battle for your mind is a very real one. The apostle Paul said to Romans, "Don't become so well-adjusted to your cultures that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you" (Romans12:2).
   Give God your dreams, for only then will you see the greater pictures of what His will for you. 

Approved works

Ecclesiastical 9:7
Go then, eat your bread in happines and drink your wine with a cheerful heart: for God has already approved your work 
eligious bandage keeps people in the place where they are continually examining their religious service to be sure the work is consistent with enough, sacrificial enough, big enough, strong enough, effective enough, and so on. The list goes on and on. The gnawing question is always, ''Is it enough?"
   The grace walk is a life style in which people can relax and enjoy living. They don't have to be concerned about whether their work are enough to please God, because they understand that their Father is pleased with them. They know that works are the outflow of the intimate and loving relationship they share together with God.
  Which lifestyle are you living right now? Here's great news you have divine permission to relax, enjoy your relationship to God, and let your good work flow naturally out to you. Because the spirit of Christ is at work in you, He will also be at work through you to accomplish the Father's purposes
   Yours works are actually His works through you, so you don't have to examine them' just enjoy them and that Him for working through you. 

The Great Potter

Jeremiah 18:1-6
As the clay is in the Potter's hand, so are you in My hand.

One definition of the word attitude is "the of approach" that an aircraft takes when landing. Author Chris Spicer writes: "Attitude are to life as the angle of approach is to flying." He adds, " Attitude is the way we choose to think about things; attitude will cause us to react and behave in a certain way." He also days that attitude are inborn or accidental. They are learn and absorbed reaction; therefore they can ne changed.
  During my thirties, the Lord began convicting me of my wrong thinking toward myself, others, and life--negative, self-pity, and bitter thinking. With the help of God's Word. I recognized my need for change in three main areas: my attitude, action, and reactions. But I feared I couldn't change. One day I read in Jeremiah 18 how the Potter refashioned some marred clay (which is what I felt like) into a different vessel. As it pleased the Potter. What I couldn't do, my great Potter could! Only needed to be cooperative clay.
  Today this vessel is far from  finished. But as I put myself in the Potter's hand, He keeps working on me and shaping my attitude and reactions. I call them Christ- attitude. Christ- actions and Christ- reactions.
The great potter can do the same for you. . . Having Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Thou art the Potter, I am the clay: Mold me and make me after Thy will. While I am waiting, yielded and still.

1Corinthians 15:20
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

FOR THE CHILD OF GOD no other day in the year should contain more joy and celebration than Easter. Why? The resurrection of Christ means "we win! And ultimately triumph over the age-old enemy---death!"
   No matter what your age, you might have experienced losing someone you love. Every time  stand over an open grave. I am tinged with anger because death robbed me of someone I love.
   When Jesus came forth from the grave, He triumphed over deat. The empty tomb means we have hope that we shall live forever with our risen Lord, help for our weaknesses because He intercedes for us, and certainty that there is more to life on Earth than just merely existing.
   In the played, The.