One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed (Proverbs 11:24,25).

One of the reasons God entrusts money to us is to bless other Christians by meeting their needs. God uses the transfer of money within the body of Christ to build unity among Christians. Sometimes we withhold money that God has designated for someone else. He wants to bless through us, but His will cannot be accomplished through us if we are disobedient.

This was the case for a business owner who tells of the time when God told him to forego a company bonus one year. God directed him to share his year-end bonus with an employee to show his appreciation for him. He wrestled with God for three full days before obeying the Lord on the matter. When he finally met with the employee to give him his check, the man said he had been praying about a financial need he had three days earlier. He had decided to borrow the money to meet his need. The amount of money he borrowed was the exact amount the business owner gave him.

God had already planned to provide for the employee through the business owner, but because he was disobedient, he almost missed the opportunity to be an instrument of God in this man's life. Even so, he could have prevented the man from having to borrow money. It was an important lesson for the business owner.

How many people do we let down because we feel the "harvest" God provides is all ours? In America the pressure is always on to move up the ladder of material accumulation. Jesus warned us about this. If our focus is on accumulation, we will not look for opportunities to be God's vessels of financial blessing to others. Ask the Lord if you have an open hand when it comes to finances.

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Experiencing God's Power Through Praise
by Dr. Michael Youssef

It is easy to praise God when the sun is shining, our children are making good grades in school, and we have received a promotion at work. But when the storm clouds gather, the grades start to slip, and the pink slips are read, the last thing we feel like doing is praising God. Yet, this is the very time when we need to lift our voices to Him in praise.

When we praise God, we proclaim our faith in Him. The psalmist writes, "As for me, I will always have hope. I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long, though I know not its measure" (Psalm 71:14-15).

A sacrifice of praise is something that we offer to God - in times of well being and in times of sorrow. Never allow praise to become a habit or a trite activity. It is a priceless honor to kneel before the throne of our Lord and Savior.

One of the greatest misconceptions concerning praise is that it is something we do for God. However, nothing could be further from the truth. God does not need our praise, but certainly, He desires it. He knows when life takes an unexpected turn toward sorrow or when a serious illness lingers for months and even years, praise has the ability to lighten our hearts and fill us with a sense of love and security that can only come from one place - heaven's throne.

Praise teaches us to be joyful and thankful regardless of our circumstances. It prepares us for God's service and helps us to see beyond our present circumstances to the immense possibilities that are ours through faith in Jesus Christ.

No matter how deep our sorrow or how grave our circumstances may seem, we can learn to praise God while acknowledging His sovereignty over our lives. A.B. Simpson wrote, "Lift up the hands that hang down. March straight through the flood, and lo, the waters will divide, the Red Sea will open, the Jordan will part, and the Lord will lead you through to victory."

This sounds like good advice, but what do you do when life becomes so dark that it seems impossible to praise God? How do you lift your voice to the Lord in praise when your husband has left you or your daughter has terminal cancer? How do you praise God when you have just received word that your loved one has met a sudden death?

You begin by realizing that praise is a sacrifice - an offering to the Lord. It does not lesson our sorrow or, in many cases, change our immediate circumstances. It will, however, bring light to our darkness - a light that Satan cannot extinguish.

Joy And Praise Provide Fresh Strength

Nehemiah wrote, "The joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). Praise teaches us to turn our eyes away from circumstances to the One who has the ability to heal, save, renew, and mend every broken heart.

There is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is something we experience for a moment and is often short lived. Joy is eternal. It comes only as a result of living a life of praise. Praise comes as a result of a heart that is overflowing with joy that may even come in lonely moments. Suddenly, you find yourself being comforted by the One who created you and who understands your grief and sorrow. You may feel as though you cannot praise God but if you will just take a step toward praise, you will sense God’s arms surrounding you.

Your praise can be as simple as this: "To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God." Let praise steady your heart when trouble comes and gain God's perspective on your current situation. Take time to thank God for what He has done for you. He has saved you and given you an opportunity to know and love Him. Remember He loves you with an unconditional love and will not withhold His love from you.

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Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Matthew 6:25-27 NIV

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Seeing God July 8, 2009

Do you want to know how to see God? Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Get your heart pure and you will see God.

I was reading Hebrews 11 and came across a verse which has direct application to this point, "By faith he [Moses] forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27).

You get your heart right and friend, you’ll see the invisible. You’ll see God. You say, "How will I see Him?" You will see Him in circumstances. You will see Him in nature. You’ll see Him in the face of a child. You will see Him in the Scriptures.

When you become pure in heart, God will become a bright, living reality to you. What God wants in you and what God wants in me is a simple little word – integrity.

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   HIS WORTHINESS     

Should I count myself worthy of such intimacy between God, and myself. My experience is this: Because of Christ's sacrifice (the giving of His sin free life, for mine), through Him, I can share such love and beauty, and a "continual fellowship" with God.  I believe, in my heart, that not one of us, in our own strength, in our own flesh, can be, or is, worthy.  I believe there is not one of us, so sin free, we can say we have a right to fellowship with the most Holy God.  The story of Jesus (my Savior, and, most alive to me), and His stain free life, to myself, and to the true Christian world, is very real, and fellowship with God (our Heavenly Father), is likewise, a reality.  That's where the believers deep passion, towards God, comes into play. We so deeply desire that others, who have no peace, who've not yet discovered such freedom, in Christ, that they too, might discover such wonderous, and wonderful, intimacy with God, through Christ's sacrifice. I know, there are those, that think this to be, a bunch of nonsense. To the Christian, it's very, very real (something we strongly know, experience and believe, within) ... something many of us would literally give our life for, if need be. 

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Constantin Caraman

I have sinned against the Lord.
(2 Samuel 12:13)

Search me, O God, and know my heart.    (Psalm 139:23)

      It takes courage to tell a king the truth, especially when the truth will result in punishment. Punishment for the king (by God) and punishment for yourself (by the king). John the Baptist did it and it cost him his head. 

When David made some serious mistakes, God sent the prophet Nathan to point them out to him. It was a difficult task for Nathan. Which one of us would like to be a bearer of bad tidings? But Nathan went to tell the king what the consequences of his sin would be. How did David react? Did he have Nathan killed? No, David did something unusual he accepted the criticism and admitted the guilt: ‘I have sinned’. He did not try to defend himself, but humbled himself before God. Is this not characteristic of a man after God’s own heart?

‘Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.’
(Psalm 139:23,24)

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By A.W. Tozer

      This may sound strange-but it is a fact that death is not the worst thing that can happen to a believing Christian! I can recall the first time I heard that statement, in a quiet conversation with Harry M. Shuman, for many years the president of the international Christian and Missionary Alliance. He was a soft-spoken yet forceful man of God, rich in the wisdom of Go&s Word. We were talking of the serious issues of life and death. When he had something especially important to say, Dr. Shuman had an unusual way of lowering his voice and tilting his head just a bit. I can see him yet as he looked out from under his shaggy brows straight into my eyes. "Remember, Tozer," he said, "death is not the worst thing that can happen to a person!" For the Christian, death is a journey to the eternal world. It is a victory, a rest, a delight. I am sure my small amount of physical suffering has been mild compared to Paul's, but I feel as Paul did: "I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far!" (Philippians 2:23).

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by:Spurgeon

Jesus is passing through the throng to the house of Jairus, to raise the ruler's dead daughter; but He is so profuse in goodness that He works another miracle while upon the road. While yet this rod of Aaron bears the blossom of an unaccomplished wonder, it yields the ripe almonds of a perfect work of mercy. It is enough for us, if we have some one purpose, straightway to go and accomplish it; it were imprudent to expend our energies by the way. Hastening to the rescue of a drowning friend, we cannot afford to exhaust our strength upon another in like danger. It is enough for a tree to yield one sort of fruit, and for a man to fulfil his own peculiar calling. But our Master knows no limit of power or boundary of mission. He is so prolific of grace, that like the sun which shines as it rolls onward in its orbit, His path is radiant with lovingkindness. He is a swift arrow of love, which not only reaches its ordained target, but perfumes the air through which it flies. Virtue is evermore going out of Jesus, as sweet odours exhale from flowers; and it always will be emanating from Him, as water from a sparkling fountain. What delightful encouragement this truth affords us! If our Lord is so ready to heal the sick and bless the needy, then, my soul, be not thou slow to put thyself in His way, that He may smile on thee. Be not slack in asking, if He be so abundant in bestowing. Give earnest heed to His word now, and at all times, that Jesus may speak through it to thy heart. Where He is to be found there make thy resort, that thou mayst obtain His blessing. When He is present to heal, may He not heal thee? But surely He is present even now, for He always comes to hearts which need Him. And dost not thou need Him? Ah, He knows how much! Thou Son of David, turn Thine eye and look upon the distress which is now before Thee, and make Thy suppliant whole.

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1 Peter

Chapter1

showing that salvation in Christ is a thing prophesied of old

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God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction. Blessed [be] God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the consolation with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through various temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though tried with fire, might be found to praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.--The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and [that] all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls [to him] in well doing, as to a faithful Creator. Ge 41:52 2Co 1:3-5 1Pe 1:6,7 2Ti 4:17 1Pe 4:19

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Every man is the temple of God and the dwelling place of His Spirit

1 Cor 3:16-17 (KJV)

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Psalm 1

The happiness of the godly

The ungodly shall perish

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God. "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are of more value than many sparrows.
(NAS, Luke 12:6-7)

Jesus often referred to God as "the Father" or "the heavenly Father." Our relationship to
God is like the loving relationship between parent and child. Like a loving parent, God knows and cares deeply
for each of us.

God is pure Spirit. We cannot see or touch Him. We can only dimly understand Him, but we can know Him through
prayer, through the teachings of the Bible, and through our faith. In His teachings, Jesus presents a picture of
a very loving God who wants everyone to be in harmony with Him. He is seeking to awaken a loving response in each
of us. God knows and loves each of us personally, as parents know and love their children. God will give good things
to those who ask:

"For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it
shall be opened. "Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone?
"Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? "If you then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to
those who ask Him! (NAS, Matthew 7:8-11)

Like children, some of us return God's love, and some do not. Nevertheless, He loves all of us. God's gifts
of love and salvation are freely offered to all, even to those who choose the path of wickedness.

…. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous
and the unrighteous. (NIV, Matthew 5:45)

God is also merciful. He is always willing to forgive a truly repentant sinner and give him or her another chance.
Even when we sin, we can be assured that God still loves us and seeks to bring us back into harmony with Him. However,
it is up to us; we can accept or reject God's love. No matter how far our lives have drifted away from God, we
must never be discouraged and think we are beyond hope!

"What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not
leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? "And when
he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. "And when he comes home, he calls together his friends
and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!' "I tell you
that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous
persons who need no repentance. (NAS, Luke 15:4-7)

One day Jesus was speaking with the Pharisee, Nicodemus, who was intrigued by Jesus' teaching but was more than
a bit skeptical. Jesus told Nicodemus that God loved the people He had created so much that He sent Jesus to save
them from the forces of evil and their own sinful ways. Those who put their trust in Jesus and His teachings could
be born again spiritually and be part of God's spiritual kingdom. They could even defeat the power of death and
attain eternal spiritual life! It was in this conversation with Nicodemus that Jesus spoke one of the most loved
and quoted verses of the Bible:

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes
in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the
world, but that the world should be saved through Him. (NAS, John 3:16-17)

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"None of us liveth to himself." Romans 14:7.

Has it ever dawned on you that you are responsible for other souls spiritually before God? For instance, if I allow any private deflection from God in my life, everyone about me suffers. We "sit together in heavenly places." "Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." When once you allow physical selfishness, mental slovenliness, moral obtuseness, spiritual density, everyone belonging to your crowd will suffer. "But," you say, "who is sufficient for these things if you erect a standard like that?" "Our sufficiency is of God," and of Him alone.

"Ye shall be My witnesses." How many of us are willing to spend every ounce of nervous energy, of mental, moral and spiritual energy we have for Jesus Christ? That is the meaning of a witness in God's sense of the word. It takes time, be patient with yourself. God has left us on the earth - what for? To be saved and sanctified? No, to be at it for Him. Am I willing to be broken bread and poured out wine for Him? To be spoilt for this age, for this life, to be spoilt from every standpoint but one - saving as I can disciple men and women to the Lord Jesus Christ. My life as a worker is the way I say "thank you" to God for His unspeakable salvation. Remember it is quite possible for any one of us to be flung out as reprobate silver - ". . . lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

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What Love Looks Like

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18)

Have you ever felt like a spiritual failure?  If so, then you’re in good company.  Even the apostle Peter felt that way after he denied the Lord.

When Jesus told the disciples they would abandon Him in His hour of need, Peter insisted that he never would.  But Jesus said that Peter would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed that day.  And he did.

Now, Peter finds himself in an awkward moment.  Jesus was crucified and had risen on the third day.  He suddenly appears to them at the Sea of Galilee.  Before they knew it, Jesus was cooking breakfast for everyone with the fish He had just helped them catch.  Maybe as they ate, Peter was remembering when, not all that long ago, he denied the Lord by the glow of another fire.

Eventually, the Lord breaks the silence.  He asks Peter a series of questions, each with the same phrase: “Do you love Me?”

Peter had learned his lesson.  Instead of boasting of his love for the Lord, he simply answers, “Yes Lord; You know that I love you” (John 21:15–17).  In the original language, the word Peter used for “love” was phileo.  It could be translated, “have an affection for.”

At least Peter was being honest.  We can talk all day about how much we love God, but never act on it.  Peter eventually proved his love for the Lord.  A leader in the early church and the writer of two New Testament epistles, he reportedly was crucified upside-down as a martyr for his faith.

How about you?  Is your love for the Lord expressed more by your words than your actions?

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Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

Things may seem bad, but we must acknowledge, understand and surrender to the Truth that God is working all things after the purpose of His will for those whom He has called.

God is sovereign. Not a snowflake falls without His permission. Not a blade of grass moves without His acquiescence.

The opposite of Romans 8:28 is just as true: All things work together for bad to those who don’t love God and who are not called according to His purpose.

Friend, faith is more than just belief – it is surrendering your understanding of everything in life to the utmost sovereign will and wisdom of Almighty God.

Adrian Rogers

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³ Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

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At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for
the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from remembering the
yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God's grace is apt to be checked
by the memory of yesterday's sins and blunders. But God is the God of
our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the
past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds
us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present.

Security for To-morrow. "For the Lord will go before
you." This is a gracious revelation, that God will garrison where we
have failed to. He will watch lest things trip us up again into like
failure, as they assuredly would do if He were not our rereward. God's
hand reaches back to the past and makes a clearing-house for
conscience.
Security for To-day. "For ye shall not go out with
haste." As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste
of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive
thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing that the God of
Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable things to
us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never return,
but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive
thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on
the bosom of Christ.
Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him.
by: Oswald Chambers 1874-1917

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    ¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

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FEAR NOT, FOR I AM WITH THEE --- Isaiah 43:5.

"Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou pleadest the cause of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life." --- Lamentations 3:57, 58.

"Fear not, for I am with thee." --- Isaiah 43:5.

"I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore; and have the keys of hell and of death." --- Revelation 1:18.

Christ has overcome, led captivity captive, and, by one offering, perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Hebrews 10:14. Whoever leaves this world believing in him, being perfected already, has nothing to fear after death.

O my heavenly Father, dispose me to seek diligently after holiness; and though the work of sanctification will be imperfect in this life, which should humble me much, yet let it cause no fear of death, nor disturb my confidence in thee, since my salvation and my confidence do not depend on perfect holiness here, but on my being in Christ and adopted through him; which adoption the weakest child hath,as well as the strongest, though both are not equally sensible of it.

For every true believer, whether weak or strong, hath eternal life, and shall not fall into condemnation. If, therefore, I am a child of God, though a weak one, I am still an heir, and shall find life and deliverance in death:

I am Alpha, says the Saviour,
I Omega likewise am;
I was dead, and live for ever,
God Almighty and the Lamb.

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A BIRTH FROM ABOVE
By A.W. Tozer

      This may sound like heresy in some quarters, but I have come to this conclusion-that there are far too many among us who have thought that they accepted Christ, but nothing has come of it within their own lives and desires and habits! This kind of philosophy in soul-winning-the idea that it is "the easiest thing in the world to accept Jesus"-permits the man or woman to accept Christ by an impulse of the mind or of the emotions. It allows us to gulp twice and sense an emotional feeling that has come over us, and then say, "I have accepted Christ." These are spiritual matters about which we must be legitimately honest and in which we must seek the discernment of the Holy Spirit. These are things about which we cannot afford to be wrong; to be wrong is still to be lost and far from God. Let us never forget that the Word of God stresses the importance of conviction and concern and repentance when it comes to conversion, spiritual regeneration, being born from above by the Spirit of God!

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Read: 2 Peter 3:1-13

The heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. --2 Peter 3:10

In 1883, the greatest volcanic explosion in modern history took place. Krakatoa, an island volcano along the Indonesian arc, shot 6 cubic miles of soil, rock, vegetation, and animal and human life 24 miles up into the stratosphere. Its shockwave traveled around the world seven times, and its debris fell as far as Madagascar--more than 2,000 miles away!

At the time of Krakatoa's explosion, Captain Sampson of the British vessel Norham Castle was nearby and wrote in his log: "I am writing this blind in pitch darkness. We are under continual rain of pumice-stone and dust. So violent are the explosions that the ear-drums of over half my crew have been shattered. . . . I am convinced that the Day of Judgment has come."

Captain Sampson believed that the world was coming to an end. The explosion does seem to fit 2 Peter 3:10, "The heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat." As terrible as Krakatoa was, though, it did not signal the end of the world.

Crisis has a way of shaking us out of complacency. It reminds us this world is not our home and encourages us to be godly (v.11). When it feels as if our personal world is coming to an end, we should focus on living for eternity. --Dennis Fisher

A Prayer
Lord, my desire is to live for You whether circumstances are good or bad. Help me to focus on Your purposes. Show me today in Your Word what You want me to do.

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