There was a man who lived a life of gross sin. After his conversion, one of his old friends said to him, “Bill, I pity you—a man that has been such a high-flier as you. And now you have settled down; you go to church, or stay at home and read the Bible and pray; you never have good times any more.” “But, Bob,” said the man, “you don’t understand. I get drunk every time I want to. I go to the theater every time I want to. I go to the dance when I want to. I play cards and gamble whenever I want to.” “I say, Bill,” said his friend, “I didn’t understand it that way. I thought you had to give up these things to be a Christian.”
“No, Bob,” said Bill, “the Lord took the ‘want to’ out when He saved my soul, and he made me a new creature in Christ Jesus.” What does it mean to not have the ‘want to?’ What does it mean to walk after the Spirit and not the flesh?
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This story on listening is an appropriate intro into our new series on learning to hear God’s voice.
Barbara, five, had disobeyed me and was sent to her room. After a few minutes, I went in to talk with her about what she had done. Teary-eyed, she asked, “Why do we do wrong things, Mommy?” “Sometimes the Devil tells us to do something wrong, and we listen to him,” I said. “We need to listen to God instead.” “But God doesn’t talk loud enough!” she wailed .
How loud God speaks is not the determining factor in hearing Him. Knowing how to listen is so much more vital. Here are some tips to helping you hear your Father God in your everyday life.
You’ve probably heard it said, “It doesn’t matter what you believe; it’s how you live that counts.” Is this true? A. J. Gordon encountered this philosophy one time as he talked with a fellow passenger on a train. The man believed he could get to heaven by his good works. Pointing to the conductor who was making his way through the coach, Gordon asked his new friend, “Did you ever notice how carefully he always examines the ticket but takes no pains whatever to inspect the passenger?” … “You see,” continued Gordon, “the passenger and the ticket are accepted together. If [the passenger] doesn’t have [a ticket], or has the wrong one, he will be asked to get off the train—no matter how honest he might appear to be. Just as the ticket stands for the man, faith stands for you.” You have to have the right ticket to make it to heaven. Keeping the law is not it.
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“I hate humanity. I am allergic to it. I see no one. I don’t go out. I am disgusted with everything. Men are beasts, and even beasts don’t behave like them.” Those are the words of actress Brigitte Bardot, sex symbol of the 1950’s and 1960’s. In those years she made the headlines with her three marriages, a series of lovers, and “a sun-kissed life on the French Riviera.” She plans to quit the movie world and retire to a farm. In a similar, fashion some have walked away from Jesus. They are disgusted and embittered souls. No one can afford the root of bitterness in their life. It is a lethal root which must be pulled up and out of a believer’s life.
A tourist in Syria observed with interest how a shepherd drove all his sheep into a sheepfold one evening. The fold was an enclosing wall with only one opening. On that opening he noticed that there was neither door nor gate. He remarked to the shepherd: “Can’t wild beasts get in there?” “No,” answered the shepherd, “because I am the door. When the sheep are in for the night, I lie down across that doorway. No sheep can get out except over my body, and no wolf or thief can get in except over me.” Today, we are going to look at the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the letter Daleth which means door.
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Wigglesworth was quoted as saying, “If you wait to get faith when you need faith, you’re too late.” Another man said, “Late faith is unavailing. There’s little use accepting arks once the rain begins to fall. Death is such an instant storm that by the time you reach for an umbrella, you already need your water wings. These words are are certainly true. It’s best to build your faith in God when days are peaceful. It’s then, you can learn some of the nuances involved for a vibrant believing of God’ Word. One of which is this issue of getting your faith into the right tense.
Benjamin Franklin said, ‘Give me twenty-six lead soldiers, and I’ll conquer the world. The pen is mightier than the sword.’ According to Franklin, there is power in the English alphabet. The same could be said for it’s Hebrew counterpart. Today we’re going to look at the second and the third letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
The letter pictured above is the Hebrew letter Beth.This is part 2 of the Series “What is the Hidden Power of the Hebrew Alphabet?” You can find part one by
clicking here.Listen to the Audio
Believers in Jesus are people of multiple focal points. We walk in the time dimensions of faith, hope and love. We live in the seen realm while we look at the unseen. We live out the will of God for our lives today while we look forward to our prophetic future. We are a people of two worlds. Is it possible to live a balanced two dimensional life?
This is Part One of a two part post.
U.S. Muslim Planned to Massacre Christians in Church
Khalil Abu-Rayyan is a 21-year-old Dearborn Heights, Michigan, man who gets excited by thoughts of beheading Americans, burning people alive and throwing homosexuals off of tall buildings. Beyond these fantasies, he’d actually made plans to shoot up a church full of Christians in Detroit, according to court records documenting his Internet conversations with an undercover FBI agent. According to affidavits filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, he told the FBI he had already picked out a church for his bloody rampage. It was located less than a half-mile from his place of employment. He chose this church because it was large – up to 6,000 members – and he knew it would be an easy target.
“A lot of people go there. Plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church,” the FBI affidavit quotes him as saying. “Plus it would make the news. Everybody would’ve heard. Honestly I regret not doing it. (If I) can’t go do jihad at the Middle East, I would do my jihad over here.”
Read more by clicking this link.
With God, there is no shortage of ways He communicates the message of redemption found in His Son Jesus (Heb. 1:1-2). Besides the Word of God, besides supernatural manifestations of His Presence, besides angelic appearances, besides pictures in nature, God uses other methods. The Hebrew alphabet was one such method He used to declare the hope for mankind. Way back before Jesus ever came to earth, God foretold of His coming in the living pictures of the Hebrew alphabet. In the first of this series we will look at some elements of the Hebrew alphabet along with the first letter Aleph .
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Hoping to relieve him of financial pressure and enable him to write more freely, the first publishers of American writer Sherwood Anderson offered to send him a weekly check. After a few weeks, however, Anderson took his latest check back to the publisher’s office. “It’s no use,” he explained. “I find it impossible to work with security staring me in the face.” Unlike Anderson, the Israelite leader Gideon found that he couldn’t work without security staring him in the face. It was Gideon’s insecurity which caused him to ask God for two miraculous signs aimed at strengthening his faith. From a human point of view, Gideon’s fear is understandable. After all, his tiny force of 300 armed men was about to face an army of 135,000 Midianites. Gideon’s band seemed to have little or no chance against such a superior force. How did God help Gideon overcome the paralysis of insecurity?
Temple Institute Raises Funds for Draft Plans for 3rd Temple
JERUSAL
EM (Worthy News)– The Temple Institute has created a $100,000 Indiegogo campaign to raise financing for “architectural plans” to construct the Third Temple, which it says will be a “house of prayer for all nations” and will usher in “a new era of universal harmony and peace” as prophesied in the Bible. The campaign says, “After millennia of yearning, only one organization is paving the way for the rebuilding of the Temple. The Temple Institute (מכון המקדש) located in the Old City of Jerusalem is a research organization dedicated to the preparing for the construction of the Third Temple, including the recreation of 60 sacred Temple vessels ready for use once the Temple is rebuilt. These include the High Priest’s breastplate featuring the twelve precious stones of the tribes of Israel, the half-ton golden menorah, and the musical instrument of the Levitical choir.”
For more information on this story see http://www.worthynews.com/17385-temple-institute-raises-funds-for-draft-plans-for-3rd-temple
