Monthly Archives: April 2012

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it

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4 days of Evangelism Training in Southern Cali...

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it

Proverbs 22:6

 

God is more than able!

We are to depend on God to enable us to raise our children properly and He will see to it that our children’s lives will be blessed. An important part of our job is to keep them covered in prayer and release them in God’s Hands.

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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Open Doors

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Ananias restoring the sight of Saint Paul

Ananias restoring the sight of Saint Paul (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Open Doors

 

READ: 1 Corinthians 16:1-12

For a great and effective door has opened to me. —1 Corinthians 16:9

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) wrote: “If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but . . . for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible.”

The apostle Paul saw some great ministry possibilities in his life situations. He used the open doors God provided to witness for Christ. When he was arrested in Jerusalem and appeared before Governor Felix, he used the opportunity to proclaim the gospel (Acts 24:24). While he and Silas were in prison, they shared the gospel with the Philippian jailer (Acts 16:25-34). And later Paul used his imprisonment in Rome as an opportunity to encourage the Philippian believers in their faith (Phil. 1:12-18).

In writing to the church at Corinth, Paul told the believers he wanted to visit and spend some time with them, but that he needed to stay in Ephesus because of an opportunity for ministry: “I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great and effective door has opened to me” (1 Cor. 16:8-9). And Paul also involved others by asking them to pray for open doors so he could speak clearly about Christ (Col. 4:3).

Ask God to show you possible open doors of service. You might be surprised at what you see. —Dennis Fisher

Jesus said to one and all:
“Take your cross and follow Me.”
When you sense the Spirit’s call,
Seize the opportunity! — Hess

 

God writes opportunity on one side of the door and responsibility on the other.

 

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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Excited About Giving

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Excited About Giving

For as touching the ministering to the saints [Paul is talking about giving to the saints], it is superfluous for me to write to you; For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many
2 Corinthians 9:1-2

Paul, through the Holy Ghost, was speaking to the Corinthian church. The Corinthians had been preparing for a long time to give to the saints. The Apostle Paul was boasting about their great enthusiasm, zeal and desire to give to the saints..

Paul walked into other places and says, “You don’t know about the church in Corinth. They were ready to give a year ago. They are so excited about giving!” Paul and those with him used this church as an example, to help other churches become more excited about giving. Obviously, this church was doing something right!

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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666 or 777

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666 or 777?


Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Revelation 13:18

This beast does great wonders, making a fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. The mark of the beast in Scripture is six, the number of a man, meaning incompleteness. The beast’s system is three sixes or an incomplete system which will fail. Satan designed it, of course, so it cannot succeed. Satan, antichrist, and the false prophet will fail.

It is important that you have an understanding of 666. Satan can’t win, so there’s no reason to hook up with him. I am not hooked up with satan, and I am not hooked up with the Babylonian system. I am hooked up with Jesus the Messiah! His number is seven, and with that number of completeness you get the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and they win!

We are living in an anti-God, humanistic, anti-Word of God system that prevails in our educational systems and in our media. We see the rise of every kind of sin. Every perversion we can imagine is no longer shocking. We are in the last of the last days; in fact, we are in that sliver of time between Jerusalem no longer being trodden down of the Gentiles and the rapture of the church. Jesus said, “No man knows the day nor hour,” but He did say that you will know by the leaves turning on the trees that summer is near. Summer is near and the return of the Lord is near, so we need to be ready!

Prayer for Today

Father!
Your Word tells me everything I need to walk in light and truth. Your Spirit gives me everything I need to walk with courage and strength. Your Son gives me life, and I thank you! In Jesus Christ! Name, Amen.

Think on These Things

Revelation 15:2
Hosea 14:9

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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It is time for the Church to be about the Father’s business… it’s time for us to go further

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It is time for the Church to be about the Father‘s business… it’s time for us to go further

 

 

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on his rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Matthew 16:18

Did you know that the Church is to confront demons of darkness wherever we find them? We are to cast them out in the name of Jesus as a sign to unbelievers! This may sound radical to you but it is not-it is what Christ Jesus said we would do!

“And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name they cast out devils” (Mark 16:17). The Church has been slothful in deliverance. We have been lazy, for we don’t want to pay the price to live holy lives, we do not study the Word of God the way we ought to, we do not spend the time before God’s presence as we should and we do not exercise our authority as we are directed to do. So as a Church how can we know the Father’s heart?

As believers our lives and actions are to testify that we belong to Christ Jesus. We are to spread the Word of God, cast out demons, set the captives free, take care of the needy and poor, and demonstrate the love of God continually.

It is time for the Church to be about the Father’s business… it’s time for us to go further.

Further Reading

  • Luke 10:19
  • Mark 16:17
  • John 3:17

God Bless

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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The Sabbath day

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The Sabbath day

Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

Exodus 20:9-10, NIV

Life on Planet Earth is fast becoming a rat race, and a mad scramble to get ahead that is leaving brokenness everywhere. We desperately need a pattern to live by that will enable us to live our lives successfully. Such a pattern already exists; it was set at the dawn of Creation by God Himself. But we are not following the Creator‘s directions.

Our twenty-four-hour day is based on the earth’s rotation on its axis. Our twelve-month years are based on the revolution of our planet around the sun. But the only basis for the seven-day week that is used worldwide as a pattern for humanity’s lifestyle is the Creator’s example: “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work” (Gen. 2:2, NIV). While God’s week included rest on the seventh day, it also involved work for six days straight, giving us a pattern for the discipline of our lives. How close does the pattern of your life follow His?

Blessings

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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This is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us

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This is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us

John 4:10

This is Love

Love never fails!

Wait a minute, no one has unfailing love! No person can love with perfection.

That’s right. But God is not a person. Unlike our love, His love never fails! God’s love is immensely different from ours. Ours depends on the receiver of the love. Our love will be regulated by appearance or by personality. Even when we find a few people we like, our feelings will still fluctuate.

Does God love us because of our goodness? Because of our kindness? Because of our great faith?

No. He loves us because of HIS goodness, kindness, and great faith. The love of God is born from within him, not from what he finds in us. His love is uncaused, spontaneous. God loves you simply because he has chosen to do so!

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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Don’t get distracted

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Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey

Don’t get distracted

 

 

Acts 24:1

“Now after five days Ananias the high priest came down with the elders and a certain orator named Tertullus. These gave evidence to the governor against Paul.”
NKJV

 

What was Ananias doing chasing Paul around? As the High Priest, he should have been serving God and ministering to the people of Israel. Ananias was around 80 years old, yet he was so caught up in resentment that he was willing to make the 60 mile journey from Jerusalem to Caesarea to bring accusation against Paul. It’s been said, that “a distraction is what you see when you take your eyes off of the goal.” When we spend our time chasing distractions, we accomplish nothing. We only have so much time and so many hours in a day. In Matthew 5:37-40, Jesus told us to love God and love others, yet often we take our eyes off of Jesus and place them on ourselves.

Ps 90:12 “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” NKJV

If you are over 35, you are probably more than half way through your lifetime. At the age of 50, you have likely used seventy percent of your time. Friends, as you get older the numbers don’t get better. Take a moment and reflect. Are you distracted? If you are focused on Jesus, then you will love God and love others. Do you love others? How? If you are making a long journey and your course gets off by even one degree, you will miss your destination by hundreds of miles. This is why we have to constantly make course corrections in our lives. Are you focused on Jesus or distracted by other things? Distracted? Uh oh, time for a course correction. Do you love other people? No? Oops… time for another course correction.

 

Life Lesson: As we follow Jesus we should not get distracted.

Dear Heavenly Father,
I love You. Please help me to love and serve others. Please forgive me for times when I have been distracted. If I am off course Lord, I ask that You would show me through Your Word, through a Bible teaching church, and through fellowship with other Christians, so that I make corrections. I pray this in Jesus Christ Name! Amen!

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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Forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us

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Corrie Milne 2007-11-11

Forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.

Let the mercy of Jesus be your model

Jesus Christ is our Example

(Matthew 6:12)

In 1944, during the horrible days of World War II, in the Ravensbruck concentration camp, Corrie Ten Boom and many other emaciated women worked long hours every day under the watchful eye of the prison guards. That year, Corrie’s sister, Betsie, died, a victim of the tortuous conditions.

In 1947, after the war, Corrie spoke to a group of Germans in a sparsely furnished Munich church basement. During her talk, she said, “Those who have been able to forgive their former enemies have been able to rebuild their lives…We, as Christians, have every reason to forgive each other, for our God richly lavishes His mercy on us.”

When she finished, she was approached by a balding, heavyset man in a gray overcoat. Horror filled her as she realized he had been one of the prison guards.

He thrust out his hand. “How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!” Dumbfounded, Corrie did not take his hand.

He went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me… but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, will you forgive me?”

Corrie remembered how he had pushed Betsie with the butt of his gun. Slowly, her hand moved toward his. Their hands touched and she finally vigorously shook his hand. With tears in her eyes, she said, “I forgive you, brother…with all my heart.”

God loves us no matter what we have done. He forgives us when we ask. Since God richly lavishes His mercy on us, we must show mercy. And that means letting go of hurts caused by others.

Your View of God Really Matters …

If you have been offended, how does it compare with the experience of Corrie ten Boom, and Jesus, both of whom forgave their attackers. You can too. Let the mercy of Jesus be your model.

What More Does God Say?

Acts 7:59-60

Because God is merciful, He forgives me of my sins when I sincerely confess them.

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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The Power to defeat fear and activate faith

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The Power to defeat fear and activate faith

It’s Easter month again! What a joy to celebrate the selfless love of a wonderful Saviour. The spotless lamb who gave His all for us to live a life of freedom. Freedom from sickness, bondage and pain. Freedom from poverty and loss and freedom from all fear! Fear has the opportunity to creep into our hearts and minds in just about any circumstance to situation but its source is always the same. Fear comes from the pit of hell with the sole purpose to paralyze our emotions, render our reasoning inactive, immobilize our faith and just plain destroy us.

This is pretty much what Timothy was battling with when Paul was writing him in 2 Timothy 1:7. When Paul wrote to Timothy, it was a very difficult time for the early church. The ruler over the region in that day was the mad man Nero. Now Nero was truly insane and a large part of his insanity resulted in the most severe, cruel and gruesome persecution of the believers, wherever his power reached. He would have every believer hunted down, caught, hideously tortured and killed. He showed no mercy for anyone. At this time, Timothy was a pastor of the church of Ephesus, a town that was completely under Nero’s evil control. Timothy knew that Nero’s secret police would take special pleasure in killing him in some barbaric way if they ever got their hands on him.

Now Timothy was having to deal with a spirit of fear, threatening to discourage him to the point of giving up his calling and turning away from one of the greatest revivals the church of Ephesus would experience. Paul told Timothy, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

The phrase (sound mind) comes from a Greek word that suggests a mind that is delivered, rescued, revived, salvaged and protected and is now safe and secure.

This means that even when your mind is tempted to succumb to fear, like Timothy, you can allow God’s Word, by the Holy Spirit, to work in you to deliver, rescue, revive and savage your mind. This means your rationale; logic and emotions can be shielded from the horrible, ridiculous, fearful thoughts that have tried to grip your mind when you face challenging circumstances.

It works like this: The more time we spend meditating on the word of God, the more truth we invest into our minds and spirits. So when fear knocks at our door and tries to take control, the Holy Spirit reminds us of the truth that we have stored inside and that truth overrides the fearful thoughts. God’s word rescues us; it protects our minds as it replaces the thoughts of fear and brings us peace and hope. The word of God causes our minds to become safe and secure in the midst of trouble as we focus on His truth instead of the fearful thoughts. Pretty soon the word of God is speaking louder than fear filled thoughts and faith comes! Faith is that powerful, life giving force that makes the impossible and changes every unfavorable circumstance to line up with the promises of God.

No matter what we are faced with today, let’s decide to take Paul’s words to Timothy to heart. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. A mind rescued, revived and protected from the talons of fear and is safe and secure, focused on the truth of His word. Just remember that it’s the word of God inside of you that has the power to protect and work for you. So don’t waste a moment on the truth of God’s word and build up the greatest investment of your life – the power to defeat fear and activate faith!

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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