The Promises of God.

I read in 2 Cor. 1:20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. I like how the English Standard version translates this verse, "For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

Charles Spurgeon once wrote - "I have thumbed my Bible many a year; I have never yet thumbed a broken promise. The promises have all been kept to me; not one good thing has failed"

I think John F. Dorsey in his book, Seventy Poems to Ponder says it best in his poem THE PROMISES OF GOD.

 

The promises of God are solid bridges,

Inviting us to take of Heaven's store.

They reach across that intervening chasm

A certain link with earth's uncertain shore.

 

The promises of God are firm connections

That link eternity with fleeting time;

They point from sin to grace's high perfections

And lead men to a fellowship sublime.

 

By these we have a past of sins forgiven

By these receive His nature so divine.

By these pass through the gates of pearl to Heaven

For these will be the Pilgrim's countersign.

 

The promises make saints a sure foundation;

Across the great divide a certain span;

Assuring them of uttermost salvation,

Reconciling God and sinful man.

 

Not one good word of these can e'er be altered,

For God Himself will see they will not fail.

No saint who stood on these has ever faltered

Against God's Word our foes can ne'er prevail.

 

They are the shining path that saints and sages

And prophets through the centuries have trod

The path that led men upward through the ages

And brought them face to face at last with God.

 

Have you a need? Then look! God has a promise!

Through it you can receive His full supply.

And live victoriously on this short journey

And cross at last to that bright home on high.

 

 

Trading Our Cross For A Crown.

I love this song by The Collingsworth Family Tradin' A Cross For A Crown off their live DVD "A Night To Remember"  I remember my pastor's wife often testifying to the fact that she had, "set her face like a flint to make it in." I like that. Determination won't get us to heaven by itself, but a heart surrendered to Jesus that will go all the way in obedience, faith, and determination will make it in Matthew 24:13. Listen be blessed and buy the album or DVD to show your support to the Collingsworth Family.

Shake By Prayer

A small boy was saying his bedtime prayers with his grandmother. He went through the normal prayer and continued to pray, for quite a few minutes. Finally when he finished and got up his grandmother, who's curiosity was piqued, asked, "Honey, why did you pray so long?" the little boy looked up with childish innocence and all the sincerity he had and answered, "I heard that, 'Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees' so I was going to give him a good shaking"
What great faith that little boy had in prayer. Prayer is our connection to God. Our hotline to heaven. It is direct contact with God.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:18 that we are to be, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit..." What a command to pray always, not just to pray always but to pray in our praying. John Wesley the faithful man of God and founder of the Methodist wrote on this verse, "Praying always - At all times, and on every occasion, in midst of all employments, inwardly praying without ceasing."
Oh what prayer can do,

An unknown author said it so well when they put it into this powerful poem;

"Prayer has divided seas rolled up flowing rivers and caused flinted rocks to rush into fountains,

Prayer has quenched the violence of the flames of fire and muzzled lions and disarmed vipers and poisonous snakes

It has marshaled the stars against the wicked and stopped the moon and arrested the sun it its rapid pace.

Prayer has burst open iron gates, conquered the strongest devils and commanded legions of angels down from heaven.

Prayer has bridled and chained the raging passions of men and routed and destroyed vast armies of proud blustering daring infidels and atheists.

Prayer has brought one man up from the bottom of the sea, and carried another in a chariot of fire into heaven.

Abram’s servant prayed and Rebecca appeared.

Jacob prayed and Esau threw his arms around his neck instead of plunging a dagger into his heart.

Moses prayed and Amalek was defeated.

Joshua prayed and Achan was discovered.

Hannah prayed and Samuel was born.

Asa prayed and a victory was gained.

Jehoshaphat cried to God and his foes were turned away.

Isaiah and Hezekiah prayed and 185 thousand Assyrians were dead in 12 hours.

Daniel prayed and the lions were muzzled, He prayed again and the 70 weeks were revealed.

Mordecai and Esther fasted and prayed and Haman was hanged.

Ezra prayed and God answered.

Nehemiah simply started a prayer and the King’s heart was softened in a minute.

Elijah prayed and a drought of 3 yrs. Succeeded . He prayed again and the rains started apace.

Elisha prayed and the Jordan was divided. He prayed again and the soul of a child came back to life.

The Church ardently prayed and Peter was delivered by an angel. Surely God’s hands are opened or bound as we pray.

Man’s extremity is still God’s opportunity, for God never never fails." (Author unknown)

 

 

T.M. Anderson wrote in his book Prayer Availeth Much "I am convinced that the people of God have not explored the boundless possibilities of prayer."
What a privilege is ours if we will only take advantage of it today. Won't you spend some extra time in prayer today? It is our only hope of revival. It is our only hope of renewal. .It our only hope of restoration. We can vote our values till we are blue in the face, we can lobby congress till we outlaw every evil thing, we can promote good clean morals until every evil thing is out of sight. But I guarantee you our only hope for America is found in this little weapon of PRAYER & REVIVAL. Lets pray in our praying and give the devil a good shaking today.

How To Pray For One Hour - Mark Eckart

This article was taken from God's Revivalist and Bible Advocate in the Winter 2014 Issue. Special thanks to God's Revivalist and Bible Advocate for giving me permission to use this article in my blog.  It not only inspired me to take a closer look at my prayer life, but also a way to keep my prayer life from becoming a rut, or boring.

First let me say that we want to shy away from legalism anytime we talk about spiritual formation topics. It is so easy to fall in the trap that if I just do these ten things or follow this specific regimen, then I will certainly be in God’s favor. On the other hand, some Christians are so lackadaisical that they never make any effort to seek God earnestly. It is interesting the interaction Jesus had with His disciples about this topic: “Then He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak’” (Mark 14:37-38).

Here is a good way to spend some time with God, whether it is for an hour or not. However, it does

work well to spend 15 minutes on each section.

 

PRAISE -

About 140 times in Scripture it talks about how we should give worship and praise to God. The book of Psalms itself is full of this admonition to praise God. For example, “He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen” (Deut. 10:21). This verse alone should get us blessed. Think of scores of other admonitions throughout

the Bible encouraging us to praise God! You could take a whole hour just on this point.

REPENT -

As Wesleyan-Arminians, we don’t believe you have to practice sin as a Christian. When you get

saved and sanctified, it changes you and your desires so you don’t want to sin and hurt your relationship with God. However, this does not mean that there is not room for confession

in the life of a believer. With all of the strengths of the holiness movement, this has been one of our

weaknesses. That is, to believe that once you are saved that you never need to confess anything to God or others. The practice of confession is stated clearly in James 5:16: “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another….”

ASK -

Often by this point in your prayer time you will be feeling great. You have spent time giving God the praise He deserves and have confessed any sin or fault that He brings to your attention. Too many of us just plop on our knees with our “wish list” to tell God all that we need and never take the time to cover these two very important before-mentioned steps. The good news is that God wants us to ask Him for our needs and even our wants. Repeatedly in Scripture we are invited to come to God and

are told that He cares about our needs and situations. A favorite reference to illustrate this is found in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seek finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Matt. 7:7-11)


YIELD -

Don’t make the mistake of believing that the sanctified no longer have anything to yield to Christ. Even though consecration is a major part of that work of grace in the life of a believer, the reality is there are things that come into all lives continually that we still need to be yielding to Christ. What a beautiful thing it is to finish your prayer time by just reminding God that you totally belong to

Him. Even though none of us deserve it, ask God to make you a conduit of His grace for that day to those who are hurting and need a hand. You will yield your time, treasures, and talent to Him once again. The other day I was leaving a restaurant with my wife. There was a sign in the window that said, “Prayer is the world’s greatest wireless connection!” I agree, so I invite you to P.R.A.Y.
 

Scriptures printed in article are taken from the NKJVArticle written by  Dr. Mark S.F. Eckart  (GBS BRE ’83), District Superintendent of the

Indiana South District of The Wesleyan Church, formerly served as a faculty member and Dean of Students at God’s Bible School.

What I Gave Up To Be A Christian

While being a Christian does cost us some things here is a positive list of this we give up to be a Christian.

 

 

What I Gave Up To Become A Christian

• I gave up filthy rags (Isa. 64:6) for a righteous robe (Isa. 61:10).
• I gave up vileness (Job 40:4) for virtue (2 Pet. 1:3).
• I gave up poverty (Rev. 3:17) for plenty (2 Cor. 8:9)
• I gave up perplexity (Luke 21:25) for peace (John 14:27)
• I gave up judgment (Rom. 2:5) for justification (Rom. 5:1)
• I gave up death (Eph. 2:1) for life (John 5:24)
• I gave up hell (Ps. 9:17) for heaven (John 14:1-3).

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? —Mark 8:36-37

Special thanks to Pastor Al Hughes for sharing this.

Black History Month- Wintley Phipps

I love this video by Wintley at a Gaither Homecoming event. What some of them endured now provides strength and encouragement for us today.
Watch this powerful message in song and be blessed.

Five ways husbands can love their wives.

Husbands are commanded in Eph. 5:25 to love their wives. Notice that this is an unconditional commandment. There are no exceptions, asterisks, or amendments in the verse. In fact it is compared to the love Christ has for the church. There is a concept to dwell on this week, do I love my wife like Christ loved the church?

I have been thinking lately, what are some ways we can show our love to our wives? Now I confess that this is not an exhaustive list but rather a springboard to get your creativity flowing in ways to keep the spark alive in your marriage, and the love bank account in the black.

                1. Act so you are easy to respect.
It is so easy for us men to try to demand respect, while it would be so much better for both if the husband lived in a way that was easy to respect. When conflict arises, (and it will give it time) do you speak in a way that is condescending or in a, "I told you so!" style? Do you raise your voice? Do you say hurtful hateful things? By avoiding these things you are actually helping your wife live up to her commandment Eph. 5:33 to submit and respect you as the head of the home.

              2. Do whatever necessary to maintain your faithfulness.
We live in a sex crazed culture. It is our responsibility as Godly husbands to be sure that there is no other person, absolutely no one else involved in our marriage. Now as I mentioned we live in a sex crazed society, and men are bombarded daily with pictures, provocative coworkers, and just people we pass in general who do not subscribe to the need for modesty. We need to build a fortress around our mind and heart, so these mental images do not interfere with our marriage. We show our love by keeping our mind, heart and body for no one else but our wife period!!! Heb. 13:4 Matt. 5:28

       3. Schedule! Schedule! Schedule!
 Keeping the romance alive will take time and effort. One way husbands can show their wives they love them is by giving them their time. Block off days or hours of the week that is only for them. Let them know that there will be no checking Facebook, emails, twitter, or even answering phone calls. Let her know it is just you and her. Take a night a week or at least once a month for a date night. Schedule it in and don't let anything get in the way of that. I understand that young families with children may face difficulties with finding babysitter, however this can often be resolved by a neighbor, a niece, or even another young couple who will swap nights with you babysitting your kids on your night, and you babysitting theirs on their night.

      4. Learn your wife's "Love Language"
If you have not read the book The 5 Love Languages you need to. I would also encourage you to take the Five Love Languages Test You may also take this test and have your wife take it as well. Share with each other what you have learned about yourself. Talk specifically about her love language and needs. Men and women think differently. We men assume our wives know we love them, but we need to let them know in a way that they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we love them.

     5. Marriage is not for you!
Love is always about the other person. In our marriage relationship, love is about her. What can I do to make her happy? What can I do to make her smile? To make her day better? We must understand that marriage can be a wonderful institution, but it was intended for so much more. It was instituted by God when he created a wife for Adam out of his rib Gen. 2:21-22. I think this shows us more than God created men first. Ask yourself why God created the woman? It was not good for man to be alone Gen 2:18. So God created a help mate from his side. Adam was then to honor, cherish, and love her. Eph. 5:25 tells us husbands to love our wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. We need to give ourselves not so much to, (although that is a wonderful thing) but for our wives. Sacrificing us for them.

These five suggestions to love your wives will help keep the romance alive. But these five suggestions are not the end all or an exhaustive list. I trust you will also think of some more ways that you can show your love to your wife, and post suggestions or comments below.