Be Encouraged: Jesus Is Coming!

We sometimes wonder where God is during the storms of life, in all the troubles of the world. Where is God? Why doesn’t He stop the evil? The Bible assures us that God will abolish evil when Christ returns. Someday He will come with shouts of acclamation, and there will be a joyous reunion of all those who have trusted in Him.

Jesus did not tell us when He is coming back. He said we were not to speculate. “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36). The sixth chapter of Revelation gives a strikingly detailed portrait of the end times, but no one knows when these things will occur except the Father in heaven.

May The Good Lord Save Nigeria And Israel From All Our Enemies And…

Theft

You shall not steal.
Exodus 20:15

Like many of the commandments, theft is one of those commandments Christians are likely to read right past. After all, few of us are likely to go rob a bank, steal from the till at work or shoplift.

Yet how many of us might bring office supplies home from work that don’t belong to us? How many of us fudge on our time clocks or spend paid time at work doing personal matters? These are all forms of theft.

We should be thankful to God for everything we have and trust Him to provide what we don’t have and need. God reiterates this commandment throughout the Bible.

Jesus said, “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother'” (Mark 10:19).

Rather…

FAITH THAT IS SEEN

Mark 2:5, “When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.”

MATTHEW 9: 1-8, MARK 2: 1-12, LUKE 5: 17-26

Faith can be seen. Just as Jesus explained to Nicodemus in John 3:8, faith is like the wind. Faith itself is invisible, but saving faith is always accompanied by corresponding actions which can be seen (James. 2:17-26).

It was not only the faith of the paralytic that Jesus saw, but also that of his four friends (Mk. 2:3). This demonstrates the effect our intercession in faith can have upon others. Jesus saw their faith. However, although our faith released on behalf of others is powerful, it is not a substitute for their faith. It is simply a help. The person who is to receive the miracle must have some degree of faith, also…

Betrayal

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?”

Luke 6:46, NKJV

Within moments of betraying Jesus, Judas hated himself for what he had done. Jesus’ third religious trial was interrupted briefly by a commotion at the doorway as Judas burst onto the scene. With a face that was surely contorted by the wretchedness of conviction, he flung thirty pieces of silver across the temple floor. As the room suddenly grew silent, the clattering coins must have reverberated in the stillness as they skidded and skipped across the marble surface. Thirty pieces of silver! The price that had been paid him by the chief priests for his betrayal! Thirty pieces of silver! The price of a wounded slave! (see Ex. 21:32) Judas sold his Lord for the price of something that, in his culture, was good for nothing!

You and I…

God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary

READ: Isaiah 50:4-10

God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. —Isaiah 50:4

The people of Israel were struggling. They had been taken captive by the Babylonians and forced to live in a country far from home. What could the prophet Isaiah give these weary people to help them?

He gave them a prophecy of hope. It was a message from God relating to the promised Messiah. In Isaiah 50:4, the Saviour Himself described the comfort and consolation He would one day bring: “The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him…

Jesus is with You

Matthew 9:24 says: “He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed Him to scorn.”

Are you like the people around Jesus in this story? He was entering the home of Jairus, a desperate man whose daughter had just died. There was no hope in man in this situation, but Jairus hoped in God. His family was helpless, and they were at the end of what they could do when Jesus said, “Give place, for she’s not dead.” In other words, “Give place; it’s not hopeless. Give place, for I am here. Give place; nothing is impossible if you believe Me.”

Often we think that our circumstance is beyond hope. We find it hard to see how Jesus could take the worst-case scenario and make it new. But Jesus is the master of rebuilding, the…

Daddy, I Need to Hear Your Voice

by Simon T. Bailey

Women have two problems with men. (I can almost hear a few ladies saying, “only
two?” with a smirk.) The two key issues are that, as men, we don’t talk and rarely
listen. When we do talk it is all about us, and when we listen we have selective
hearing. Well, this couldn’t be farther from the truth in this next instance.
My father recently had to have surgery and I decided to fly up to Buffalo, New York
to be with him. I won’t bore you with the details, but he made it through with flying
colours. Thank goodness. On the day prior to his discharge, we were just sitting
in the hospital room when all of a sudden my father started talking to me.
It was way deeper than sports, weather, politics, or the economy. Someone or…

God is Good

READ:Matthew 19:16-26

[Jesus said,] “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” —Matthew 19:17

When someone asks, “How are you?” it has become common for the response to be, “I’m good.” When we say this, we are really saying, “I’m well” or “I’m doing fine,” speaking of our general well-being and not our character. I have answered with that response more times than I can count, but lately it has begun to bother me. Because, whether we realize it or not, we are saying something specific when we use the word good.

Jesus once encountered a wealthy young man who called Him “Good Teacher” (Matt. 19:16). The young man was right, for Jesus is both good (completely perfect) and the Teacher. He is the only…

God is love.

“This is real love – not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:10)

If you had to summarize God in only one word, what would that word be?

Steve Henning waited fifty-seven years to hear a single word. As a baby, he had contracted spinal meningitis. Since penicillin was being saved for the war effort in 1943, he received no treatment and fell deaf. In 2001, however, a new surgical procedure was developed. The doctors implanted a device in Steve’s ear, but then the waiting game began. The device could only be activated when the swelling went down—and that took six weeks.

When the moment of truth came, the doctors activated the cochlear implant. Steve’s wife was invited to say something, to see if her husband could…

At peace with God

Acts 12:6

“And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.”
NKJV

How often do you allow the troubles of life to steal your peace? Do you replay events over and over in your mind wishing you had done something differently, and sometimes even allow bad events to set the tone for the rest of your day? I am reminded of a story about a man who while on his way to work had a flat tire. When he finally got to work, his secretary asked him how he was doing. Through clenched teeth he said, “Terrible! I had a flat tire.” He walked into his office, slammed the door, threw the chair back from his desk, and picked up a phone…

Stained glass at St John the Baptist’s Anglican Church http://www.stjohnsashfield.org.au, Ashfield, New South Wales. Illustrates Jesus’ description of himself “I am the Good Shepherd” (from the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 11). This version of the image shows the detail of his face. The memorial window is also captioned: “To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of William Wright. Died 6th November, 1932. Aged 70 Yrs.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps

Finding Something New in Something Old

Written by Jim Coleman

“A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” -Proverbs 16:9

Twenty years ago, my father needed a stint placed in one of the arteries of his
heart. My father was thin, and so am I. The fact that his heart needed attention
got my attention, so I decided immediately to get my…

You have been reconciled to God through Christ Jesus

Corinthians 5:19 says: “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” Jesus wants us to be reconciled unto God. He wants us to be reinstated. He wants us to walk in fellowship with God. He wants us to walk in a sonship relationship with God the Father. When we think on this fact, we sometimes forget that God really did do in Christ what He sent Him to do on the cross. “It is finished.” Now you and I need to simply accept the fact that we have been reconciled unto God. We have been brought back to Him and united with Him. We have become one with Him, and we have been reinstated as sons and daughters…

Enemy Of Trust

READ: Judges 7:2-8

The Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many.” —Judges 7:2

Military commanders always want to have enough troops to accomplish their mission. Most would prefer having too many not too few, but not everyone agrees on just how many troops will be enough.

When Gideon recruited an army of 32,000 men to stand against those who oppressed the Israelites, the Lord told him, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’” (Judg. 7:2).

So the Lord began to reduce Gideon’s army. When the fearful were allowed to leave, 22,000 men went home (v.3). A second reduction cut the force from the remaining 10,000 to 300 troops, of whom the…

Growing in Love

[Love] rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things…. Beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things.
1 Corinthians 13:5,7

Let me say something that may shock you but is nevertheless true: You don’t really fall in love with someone until after you’ve been married to them. All the other feel-good things that happen in courtship aren’t
real love. These things aren’t necessarily bad, and you have to admit
that they feel awfully good, but they aren’t real love.

You don’t “fall” in love; you grow in love. You grow love over time,
choosing again and again to take advantage of God’s love and power to
extend love to both your mate and yourself.

This is God‘s plan for marriage. Any time you tinker with God’s plan,
somebody pays a terrible price. Where divorce is concerned, not only…

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh

Genesis 2:24, NIV

Two Together Forever

Some people may consider the intimate side of marriage as somehow being “unspiritual.” Love expressed in marriage in a mutually respectful sexual relationship is God‘s idea, and it is pure, holy, and pleasing to Him.

Dr. Ed Wheat, a prominent marriage counselor, has pointed out that if the physical side of marriage deteriorates, every other aspect of marriage will soon be affected (Love Life).

When God commanded Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and increase in number” (Gen. 1:28, NIV), He seemed to be saying, “Make sex a priority in your marriage,” not only for the procreation of the race but also in order to maintain the intimate physical unity with each other we were created for.

Blessings

May…

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us
NKJV

Romans 5:8

Ephesians 2:4-5

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”
NKJV

Two of the most important words in the entire Bible are “But God.” You and I were dead in our sins and trespasses… but God. Johnny was an alcoholic and Jane was a heroin addict… but God. The world needs to hear these words… but God. When I see both local and world news, it becomes more and more evident that this world is a mess… but God.

1 Timothy 2:3-4 “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all men…

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven…2 Corinthians 5:1-2

When I was a young boy, summers consisted of afternoons on the baseball diamond and meals at Mom’s dinner table. But Mom had a rule: dirty, sweaty boys could never eat at the table. “Go clean up and change your clothes if you want to eat!” And in my mind, a bath and a clean shirt were a small price to pay for a good meal!

From God’s perspective, death is a small price to pay for the privilege of sitting at his table. He said “This body that can be destroyed must clothe itself with something that can never be destroyed.”