God is not trying to keep us out of anything. The good news is that He wants to bring us into something, into a good place of blessing and abundance

Deuteronomy 6:23 says: “He brought us out from thence, that He might bring us in, to give us the land which He sware unto our fathers.” This is a great revelation to Israel. They had been bound for 430 years. They had been in sin, and they had been enslaved. They had been heavily burdened and grieved by the oppression of Pharaoh and the bondage he subjected them to, but God brought them out through the shed blood of the Passover lamb. He brought them out with a purpose. He brought them out to take them in. God is not trying to keep us out of anything. The good news is that He wants to bring us into…

Life is a risky enterprisebut be encouraged! If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, the Catcher is waiting at the end to take you safely home

READ:John 14:1-6

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. —John 14:3

Life is a risky enterprise. Sometimes we fly high, enjoying great success. But then suddenly we fall into deep disappointments and the haunting reality of failure, leaving our hearts wondering if there is anything worth looking forward to.

At a funeral recently, the pastor told the story about a trapeze artist. The performer admitted that although he is seen as the star of the show, the real star is the catcher—the teammate who hangs from another trapeze bar to grab him and guarantee a safe landing. The…

Being faithful in the little things first.

Matthew 25:23“His Lord said to him “Well done good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”

Sometimes we get so focused on doing great and mighty things for God that we forget about being faithful in the little things. Our faith grows as we serve in the little things and that prepares us for the bigger things God has for us. He is watching and if you are faithful in doing good and doing it with a pure and excellent heart, God will reward you in due season. Remember that God has placed you where ever you are now, for a season. I want to encourage you today to stay hopeful, do not get discouraged in doing good and always stay faithful in…

Helpless Without God

“I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”

John 5:30, NKJV

Have you wondered, in agony, why God is doing what He’s doing? Why He has delayed answering your prayer? Have you reacted to the delay by trying to help Him out and speed things up? Have you turned to . . . a doctor, a lawyer, a counsellor, a friend, pop psychology, a neighbour’s sympathetic ear, or a popular TV talk show? Have you resorted to threats

or bargaining or manipulation until you’re totally exhausted? Have you come to the absolute end of your rope?

One reason God may be delaying His answer to your prayer and postponing His intervention in your situation is to bring you to the end of your own resources. Sometimes God waits in order to allow us time to exhaust every…

Why We Must Forgive

Forgive whatever grievance you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Colossians 3:13 (NIV)

My friend’s unkind comments cut me to the bone. After many years of close friendship, she lost her temper, accused me of things I didn’t do and blasted me with an onslaught of hurtful words.

She crossed every boundary of decency, respect and friendship, and the more I replayed her careless and caustic words in my mind, the more furious I became. I felt miserable and decided to have nothing more to do with her. “She doesn’t deserve my forgiveness,” I told myself repeatedly.

I shared my painful experience with another close friend. She listened to me and then surprised me with her advice.

“You need to forgive her. You don’t want to live your life with the weeds of unforgiveness and bitterness growing in your…

God‘s Good Will

For this is good [beautiful] and acceptable in the sight of God our
Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the
knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:3-4

Notice two things about the will of God. First, it is His will that all
men be delivered, healed, preserved, made sound, made whole and come
into the full complete, total, discernment knowledge of the truth. The
love of God’s heart is to get people saved and their eyes opened, to
give them the real truth in a world full of error and darkness.

Every born again person is tasked with proclaiming this message. Your
job is to proclaim the Lord and to educate and disciple people in the
truth so that they can turn around and share with you. If you are in a
church that doesn’t evangelize and disciple…

By their fruits you shall know them

Matthew 7:20,

MATTHEW 7:12-20

The way that you can tell whether a person is genuine or not is by the fruit they produce. This fruit is speaking of lifestyle. Jesus made the point that you don’t get bad fruit from a good tree, and you don’t get good fruit from a bad tree. Many people say one thing, but their actions speak so loudly that you really can’t hear what they are saying. If you are in doubt about whether a person is genuine or not, or whether you should receive from them and follow their teaching, look at the fruit they are producing.

In evaluating ministers and ministries, more attention should be given to the fruit that is being produced. Failure to do this could lead someone to reject and even discredit a minister who simply makes a mistake or…

Right now Jesus is asking for our help

The Least of These

My whole being will exclaim, “Who is like you, O Lord? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them”.
Psalms 35:10

Simon is a little boy who saw his parents die before he was five years old. For the past two years, he’s been on the street, begging for help, praying to a God he knows is there to help him.

Sudan has suffered tragedy upon tragedy. Millions of Sudanese are dead, and more than four million have been driven from their homes. They are being targeted for two reasons: They are black and they are not Muslims.

They are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Through compassionate supporters over the last decade, Bridge of Hope has freed more than 29,000 men…

The Heartbeat of Jesus

Father, I want those you have given me to . . . see . . . the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

John 17:24, NIV

Before the foundation of the world was laid, God, in His divine sovereignty, planned to send His own Son to the cross to be our Saviour. Before the beginning of time and space and human history, He took counsel with Himself and decided to bring us into existence, knowing full well that we would rebel against Him and become separated from Him by our sin. So He made preparations for our redemption-preparations that were finished once and for all time at the cross.

The heartbeat of Jesus was to finish His Father’s plan and, in so doing, bring glory to God. In other words, through His own death on…

God is Your God, Not Money

And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in
knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are
excellent; that ye may be sincere without offence till the day of Christ: Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by
Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God
Philippians 1:9-11

When God increases the fruits of your righteousness, after a while you
will be filled. You will be satiated and well satisfied. God is
interested in your being blessed and prosperous. He doesn’t have a
problem with your having wealth; He has a problem with wealth having
you.

As long as you live with the understanding that He is your God, not
money; that He is your source, not money, then God can say, “I’ll pour
all of my abundance on you! I’ll…

A Love burst

“Jesus said to the paralyzed man, ‘I tell you, stand up, take your mat, and go home.’ …The people were amazed and praised God, saying ‘We have never seen anything like this!’ Mark 2:12”

Love bursts! Spontaneous affection. Tender moments of radiant love. Ignited devotion. Explosions of tenderness.

Here’s what I mean. The women you’re standing with at the party start complaining about their spouse, but you look across the room at your husband and smile. Still as handsome as when you met—a bit paunchier, but you don’t see that. All you see is the man who stole your heart.

That’s a loveburst!

When friends of a paralyzed man heard Jesus was in town, they hurried to get their friend to Him. It was his only hope! But Jesus was surrounded—packed into a crowded house. No way they could get inside. Unless, of course, they lowered…

We inherit troubles when we disregard God and His Word

2 Chronicles 21:6

“And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for he had the daughter of Ahab as a wife; and he did evil in the sight of the LORD.”
NKJV

Our lives are full of decisions. From small ones, like what we have for dinner, to large ones like who we marry. No matter their size, they all impact our life somehow. In 2 Chronicles 21, Jehoram begins his rule of Judah by killing off his family and leading the nation into sin. This was not a decision that happened in a moment but probably was a result of a close relationship with a family known for their evil deeds. In essence, his bad decision to marry into Ahab’s family led to even worse decisions…

Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for the happiness of those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you

Luke 6:27-28

God is love.

Loving By Faith

An attorney came to me with that familiar problem: a business partner he could not tolerate. The two men actually hated each other, criticizing and demeaning one another at every opportunity. Rather than speaking of God‘s desires for that relationship, each man focused only on the unlovable traits of the other.

I reminded my friend, a new believer, that God’s Word commands us to love our enemies. I further suggested that he go to that other man, tell him he loved him, and ask his forgiveness for the way he had treated him. The attorney’s eyes grew wide. “I could never love him,” he said.

But in the end, he went in faith, confessed…

The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’

Psalm 14:1

Saying yes to your miracle might mean stepping out in faith and risking looking
foolish. What if you fail? What will people say about you? What will they think?
We put limits on ourselves and we remain stuck. We are afraid to take the step
of faith to say yes to the miracle because of what people will say.

When we at the ministry decided to file a Jeremiah 29:11 plan in the courts – a
plan for a miracle rather than a business plan as they were used to getting – we
risked looking foolish as a ministry.

What would people think if God did not give us a miracle? What would they think
of us? Would they think we were non-intellectuals? Stupid? Would we lose integrity?

What would they think of God? Were we risking…

Forgiveness: An Act Of Obedience

Forgiveness begins by recognizing evil in all of its horror. We can forgive without denying the reality of the evil and hurt we suffered at another’s hand. We can also forgive those who hurt us without condoning or excusing the offender’s hurtful act. Forgiveness doesn’t brush aside the hurt, nor dismiss it. We must choose to forgive anyone who wrongs us. Our forgiveness is not predicated on our understanding why the offender hurt us. We may never understand the cruel actions of people like Hitler, the Ku Klux Klan, or the Boko Haram, but we can still choose to forgive them.

Feelings have nothing to do with the willful choice we make to forgive others. Surely the Apostle Paul didn’t “feel” like forgiving when his offenders stoned him, tried to kill him and threw him into prison. Even in his pain, he…

Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water

Hebrews 10:22

My dog Salty knows he isn’t supposed to get into the trash. But let the house be human free, and the dark side of Salty takes over. If there’s food in a trash can, the temptation is too great!

That’s what happened the other day. I got made, but I got over it. I cleaned up the mess and forgot about it.

Salty didn’t! He kept his distance. When I finally saw him, his tail was between his legs, his ears dropping. He thinks I’m mad at him. He doesn’t know I’ve already dealt with his mistake.

Somewhere, sometime, you got tangled in garbage…and you’ve been avoiding God. You wonder…

God‘s Comfort

God Of All comfort

Blessed be the . . . God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4, NIV

How could Mary bear to watch her Son tortured? Yet how could she tear herself away?

Her entire body must have quivered as though from an electric shock as she heard Jesus calling to her from the Cross. Surely her breath caught as she strained to hear His words, yet He spoke clearly, “‘Dear woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple [John], ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home” (John 19:26-27, NIV). And somehow, even with the horror of the scene before her, and the weight of agony pressing against her chest, she knew everything was going to be all right. She didn’t understand, but in the midst of the anguish…

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry

1 Timothy 1:12 NKJV

It’s your first day on a new job. You walk in with little to no experience and your boss tells you, “I’m taking two weeks off and you’re running the business.” Can you imagine the fear and anxiety that would hit you at that moment? To be given a major task you haven’t been equipped to accomplish would cause anyone to throw up their hands in frustration. When it comes to serving the Lord and ministering to others, God has not left you empty handed. He has equipped you through His Holy Spirit and His Word to engage in ministry in a powerful way.

1 Corinthians 12:7 “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.” NKJV

I’ve…

Staying in Faith

Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many
days
Ecclesiastes 11:1

Staying in faith through the entire process is critical to receiving
your harvest. It’s like being on a job and having your boss promise you
that you will soon receive a promotion. You are excited to go to work
the next day, but eventually you get discouraged if it takes a long
time to happen. If you stop going to work, however, you won’t be able
to go into the boss’ office one day and ask, “Where’s my promotion?” It
doesn’t work that way. If you are going to get the promotion, you must
stay on the job.

Likewise, if you are going to receive the harvest God wants you to
have, you must stay in faith. You can’t just say, “Thank you, Father,
for my harvest,” on Monday…

World’s Longest Table

READ:Matthew 26:26-30

I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom. —Matthew 26:29

On Sunday, July 18, 2010, one of the busiest highways in Europe became what some called “the longest table in the world.” Officials closed a 60-kilometer (37-mile) section of the A40 Autobahn in Germany’s Ruhr region so people could walk and bicycle or sit at one of 20,000 tables set up on the roadway. An estimated 2 million people came to enjoy an event the director hoped would connect people from many cultures, generations, and nations.

This event made me think of an even grander table around which believers gather to share the Lord’s Supper. During communion, we remember Jesus’ death for us as we anticipate the culmination of history at His return.