You are forgiven

Matthew 9:2 says: “And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” This verse does not tell us what sin this man had committed. It doesn’t tell us the depth of the depravity or the degree of darkness. It makes no mention of the condemnation or the shame of it, or the hurt that was caused to others. The only thing Jesus focused on was the faith of the man and his friends. He turned to the man and said, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” I think that Jesus is in every one of our lives in the secret places of our shame, our condemnation, our brokenness, our remorse…

God is Holy

Holiness cannot be hoarded!

“And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in Him.” (1 John 3:5)

Do you strive to live a pure and holy life? What disciplines help you do that?

In the time of Jesus, there were religious experts called Pharisees. The highest value of life, in their view, was maintaining holiness—which, for them, meant not touching anything or anyone they might consider “unclean.” Holiness was a matter of staying on the defence socially, and avoiding certain people entirely.

What really bothered them about Jesus was the way He sought out “unclean” people—those with diseases, those with clear and unmistakable sin in their lives. Wasn’t He forfeiting His personal purity by associating with lowly individuals? It seemed an outrage! Yet Jesus led history’s holiest life even while seeking out those who needed to…

Jesus Is Knocking! by Ross Rhoads

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).

T.S. Elliott wrote that “hollow men” are those who hear the call and refuse to heed it. The Lord of the church is seeking to enter His church. He presents them with the choice, “Open up or shut me out.”

And the consequences are clear. Jesus says, “I love you, rebuke and chasten you. Be zealous and repent”(cf. Revelation 3:19). Open the door now! Each of us has something we would not like the Lord to identify in our lives, but there is no barrier that His eyes cannot see. What is behind your closed door?

Jesus knows why there is no response to His knocking. Spoiled by…

4 days of Evangelism Training in Southern California provided by LivingWaters Ministry. Obeying the great commission of Jesus Christ. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to everyone” Mark 16:15 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

God’s ways are truly higher than ours.

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

There are times in our lives where we know that we know that God wants us to do something, yet our flesh kicks against it with all its might. Sometimes we do what God wants us to do, yet we feel remorse in our hearts because it just doesn’t make sense in the natural. This is where we need to guard our hearts and always…

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)

Great Power, GreatGrace

And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all
Acts 4:33

Notice the words great grace. The anointing can increase in your life.
The prophet Elisha stayed with Elijah for twenty years, and at the end
of Elijah’s life he asked Elisha what he wanted. Elisha requested a
double portion of the anointing. He knew the value of more…

God is A Personal Spirit

“Won’t You revive us again, so Your people can rejoice in You?” (Psalm 85:6)

For years, Evan Roberts yearned to preach the gospel. One day in 1904 while he was in prayer, God revealed to him that He was going to send a revival to Wales.

Roberts was a young Welsh miner with coal dust in his hair and grime beneath his fingernails. He possessed no skills as an orator. The only book he knew was the Bible. But his heart burned with a passion for God.

Roberts begged his pastor to let him preach. At first the bewildered minister said “No.” Finally, after much pleading, the pastor relented. “All right, Evan, you can preach following the Wednesday night service,” he said, “if anyone chooses to stay and listen.”

Seventeen curious seekers stayed behind. The young evangelist boldly proclaimed that…

Rescued and Restored by God

“We have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. 2 Corinthians 5:16”

Acts 10:28 says, “God has shown me that he doesn’t think anyone is unclean or unfit.”

But the guy in the cubicle next to you makes racist jokes. Doesn’t he notice that your skin is black?

He has a rebel flag as a screen saver. Your great-grandfather was a slave. You’d love nothing more than to distance yourself from this guy.

Consider being the superintendent of an orphanage. You come across a birth certificate with a troubling word: illegitimate. And you learn it is a permanent label. It’s what Edna Gladney discovered. Can you imagine living with such a label? Mrs. Gladney couldn’t. It took her three years, but in 1936 she successfully lobbied the Texas legislature to remove the term from birth certificates.

Let’s view people differently. Let’s…

See God’s Perfect Will

John 9:7 says: “And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.” Here Jesus made clay and put it on the blind man’s eyes. Then He sent him to the pool to wash. What a miracle when the man saw! Jesus wants all of us to allow Him to apply the truth to our eyes so that we may see God’s perfect will, and that we may see how we should walk and what sin is. God wants us to see the path of righteousness and the path of destruction and sin, so that when we encounter sin we stay away from it. It’s not that God is trying to keep us from joy, but He’s trying to keep us from being cursed. He’s trying to…

What is wise to the world is foolishness to God.

1 Corinthians 3:18-19 “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness.”

Let no one glory in man! Listen to the counsel of man but always remember that God’s Word stands. Do not put your faith & trust in man. What is wise to the world is foolishness to God. Fear God & obey Him.

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…

The Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts.

—1 Chronicles 28:9

READ:Joshua 9:1-16

According to lie-detection experts, “Our natural tendency is to trust people.” However, not everyone is trustworthy all the time. Signs that someone may be lying include fidgeting, lack of eye contact, and noticeable pauses in speaking. Even with these clues, experts warn that it is still quite tough to tell deceivers from honest people.

Joshua needed to know if he could trust the Gibeonites. When they discovered that God wanted him to get rid of some neighboring nations (Josh. 9:24), they pretended to be from a faraway land. They arrived in worn-out tunics and patched sandals, claiming, “Our garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey” (v.13). The Israelites were suspicious (v.7), but they “did not ask counsel of the Lord

Seeing Doubt For What It Is

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God
said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Genesis 3:1

The enemy of our souls never seems to make a direct frontal attack. In
this verse, we see that he begins his assault by approaching the woman
God got from Adam’s rib. If you must defeat a two-person team, you
rarely begin with an assault on the stronger or the senior member. You
tackle the junior or the smaller member first, hoping to divide and
conquer. This technique began with satan in the Garden.

His first device is to question God’s Word in a subtle way: “Hath God
said…?” The devil always works to introduce doubt, but usually he
does it…