How many times have we quenched the Spirit with icy-cold waters of logic? How often have we felt God tug on our hearts… but calculated our way out of responding? “It doesn’t ‘add-up’?”, we say. So we keep our feet firmly inside the boat, because we know no one can “walk on water”.
When everyone else is compromising, will you be UNcompromising?
Are you willing to be the fuddy-duddy, the stick-in-the-mud, the square, the goody-two-shoes, the odd-man-out, the weirdo, the fanatic, the moron, the dinosaur, the last Christian standing?
Are you willing to suffer ALONE?
Who chose (or is choosing or will choose) your wife??
Bad choice = Bad support.
God’s choice = Godly support.
These peaceful moments before dawn are what remind me that there is more to life than my own little needs; that there is more to faith than what the eyes can see; that my life is not my own, and no matter how dark the day seems there is always good in Jesus, like the sun shining behind the clouds.
Today there is a vocal minority of Christians who have made a tremendous issue out of the phrase “three days and three nights.” They insist that Jesus used the expression because He was to be in the grave exactly seventy-two hours, not a second more or second less. This conviction has led them to conclude that Christ was crucified on Wednesday afternoon and was resurrected at the same hour late Sabbath afternoon. In this way they account for the full seventy-two hours which they believe Christ spent in the tomb.
Does this interpretation harmonize with the full Bible record on the subject? Does it fit with the many other inspired accounts of the time element involved? Is there other information given in the Word of God which will make it clear exactly how the three days and three nights are to be understood?
In the end, the battle is fought on the grounds of FAITH: do we believe that Jesus did all for us, that He will manifest His righteousness in us despite all apparent evidence to the contrary?
As long as we try to tackle sinfulness by focusing solely on the sinful acts, rather than the lusts that produce them, we will live in frustration. The only way to stop a weed from sprouting is to kill it at the root. God provided us with the best (and only) sin killer available to man: His Word. God’s Word of truth will transform us inwardly so that our very desires will change. And when the root of a sin is gone, the sin goes with it: No root no sin, no problem.
I know it is God who has been guiding my life, but I also know He sent a friend for me when I was a confused and lonely eleven year-old. And He used that friend and that friendship to rescue me. I will be forever grateful.
Intellectuals often say, “When we know, we will do.” Jesus taught, “No, when you do you will know.” According to Jesus, when you apply His teaching to your life you will know by the way the truth He teaches changes your life that His teaching is not the teaching of a man but the very teachings of God.
When some followers of Christ find themselves suffering, their immediate response is “Lord, deliver me from this, immediately!” He can and sometimes He does. But He often does not. When He does not it may be because it is His will to grow spiritual character in the life of His follower.
Reflections in The WORD 