1. Never make your financial needs known to anyone but God. (Phil 4:19)
2. Never accept money from unbelievers. (3 John: 7)
3. Never accept any gifts from anyone. (Ps 62:5)
4. Never allow anyone to control you or influence your ministry by giving you money.
5. Never accept money from those who don’t receive your ministry.
6. Never accept money for your personal or family needs, from anyone poorer than you.
7. Never be dependent on any man for your financial needs.
8. Never handle God’s money in a way that would cause others to suspect mishandling. (2 Cor 8:20, 21)
9. Never be excited when you receive money.
10. Never be deprived when you lose money.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
A truthful statement
We need to understand this great secret. We need to grab hold of this. It will be a great help to you in the everyday bread and butter issues of your life.
How we behave in a crisis or a dilemma is determined by what we do the rest of our time.
Did you get that?
When the heat is on and we find our backs to the wall, how we react will be determined according to what we do all the other moments in our lives.
I think this illustration can be used for sports competitors - rugby, football, whatever team sport you care to speak of. The players' spontaneous reactions on the field are determined, if they are a professional sports person, according to what they were trained to do in practice. So in the heat of the moment they will behave as they have been programmed to behave in such a situation. Now if they go into the match cold without any training, or missing the nights with the boys in the cold and in the ice when there's no glory, when there is no praise, no cups, no matches to win, their own reactions will come out according to their emotional reflexes. The same with a soldier, they are trained in the heat of the battle to behave in a certain way, and that comes out - why? - because it has been put in at great pains with high discipline.
So what determines how you spontaneously react in a crisis is what you do every other day of your life.
When you're faced with a dilemma and you don't know what decision to make, and the decision you have to make has to be made quickly - it's too late trying to prepare for the crisis when you find yourself in the middle of it! You mightn't have time to fall on your knees and pray. You mightn't have time to get your concordance and see what God's Word has to say in such a circumstance. But if you are channeling the word and wisdom of God into your heart day and night, moment by moment, month by month, year by year, the Holy Spirit brings it out when you need it - in a split second, in that moment!
Active wisdom is always spontaneous. I love this, because so many of us are so willing to pass the buck - 'Oh, I couldn't make that decision on my own, I would have to consult somebody else over that' - or passively, we're willing to wait for someone else maybe to come along and save us. We need to act quickly and decisively. Lets ask the Lord to help us spend more time meditating His word.
How we behave in a crisis or a dilemma is determined by what we do the rest of our time.
Did you get that?
When the heat is on and we find our backs to the wall, how we react will be determined according to what we do all the other moments in our lives.
I think this illustration can be used for sports competitors - rugby, football, whatever team sport you care to speak of. The players' spontaneous reactions on the field are determined, if they are a professional sports person, according to what they were trained to do in practice. So in the heat of the moment they will behave as they have been programmed to behave in such a situation. Now if they go into the match cold without any training, or missing the nights with the boys in the cold and in the ice when there's no glory, when there is no praise, no cups, no matches to win, their own reactions will come out according to their emotional reflexes. The same with a soldier, they are trained in the heat of the battle to behave in a certain way, and that comes out - why? - because it has been put in at great pains with high discipline.
So what determines how you spontaneously react in a crisis is what you do every other day of your life.
When you're faced with a dilemma and you don't know what decision to make, and the decision you have to make has to be made quickly - it's too late trying to prepare for the crisis when you find yourself in the middle of it! You mightn't have time to fall on your knees and pray. You mightn't have time to get your concordance and see what God's Word has to say in such a circumstance. But if you are channeling the word and wisdom of God into your heart day and night, moment by moment, month by month, year by year, the Holy Spirit brings it out when you need it - in a split second, in that moment!
Active wisdom is always spontaneous. I love this, because so many of us are so willing to pass the buck - 'Oh, I couldn't make that decision on my own, I would have to consult somebody else over that' - or passively, we're willing to wait for someone else maybe to come along and save us. We need to act quickly and decisively. Lets ask the Lord to help us spend more time meditating His word.
Sermon on how to lead a Victorious Prayer Life
Scripture based on James 4:1-10Of all the things a believer can learn to do in this life, the most important thing is to learn to pray! One day, the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him for some instruction. They did not ask Him how to heal the sick. They did not inquire about how to raise the dead. They were not interested in Jesus’ secret for walking on the water, or in His recipe for multiplying the loaves and the fishes. When they came to Jesus, they asked for a very simple, elementary thing. Look at Luke 11:1. They said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” These men knew that prayer was central to everything else in their relationship with God. They wanted to have a prayer life like the one they saw in Jesus!
We all need to learn how to pray! Everything in our personal walk with God hinges on our ability to pray prayers that are heard and answered. Oh, we do a lot of praying, but often our prayers do not prevail. We need to learn how to pray prayers that “avail much”, prayers that prevail with God, prayers that are heard and answered. This passage has some important things to say about the matter of prayer. In fact, I see in these verses the Simple Steps To A Victorious Prayer Life. I want to share them with you this evening because I believe we all want to know how to have an effective, powerful prayer life. I believe God wants us to have that kind of prayer life. I believe that kind of prayer life is available to every one of God’s children today. Notice these Simple Steps To A Victorious Prayer Life.
I. v. 1-2 AVOID FORSAKEN PRAYING
A. Here is a people who are going after life. They are trying to get everything they can by any means they can. They fight, they scheme, they plan, they kill, they work, they war and they hate all in an effort to get the things they think they need. James tells them that they lack the things they are after in life simply because they do not ask for them!
B. How many times have we been guilty of the same thing? We operate within the realm of our own power, striving in our own energy to obtain the things we want and think we need, but we fail to get them because we do not take the time to ask God!
(Ill. There is no problem in your life, the life of this church, this city, this county, this state, this nation or this world that cannot be solved via the avenue of prayer! When God’s people begin to call on His name in the right way, they become partakers of his power, His peace and His glory. It is prayer that links our lives with God’s omnipotent power! We need to learn to utilize His power, and that can only be done through prayer!)
(Ill. A little boy was trying with all his might to move a large stone. His muscles were straining, sweat covered his face and brow as he tried with everything he had to move that stone. His father sat nearby watching all this with mild amusement. After a while he said to his son, “Son, are you using all of your strength?” The little boy answered, “Yes, I’m using all the strength I have!” His father said, “No, you really aren’t son. You haven’t asked me to help!”
How many times is that true in our lives? We struggle and strain, we war and wrestle, but we cannot achieve what we want to. Could it be that we have failed at a very obvious point? Could it be that we have failed to call on the Father and enlist His help in the situation? He wants to bless you. He wants to move in your life in power and glory, but often He doesn’t because we do not ask!)
C. Prayerlessness is a sin! We are commanded to pray – 1 Thes. 5:17; Luke 18:1. To fail to pray is to commit sin! Many need to repent of their prayerlessness! There is no substitute for a strong prayer life! Your greatness and success in your public life and ministry are directly tied to your prayer closet! What we are on the stage of life is not as important as what we are in the closet of prayer!
E. There is so much to be done here at while we are on this earth! There are souls that need to be saved; wayward brothers and sisters that need to be reclaimed;; lives that need to be changed for the glory of God; and the whole world needs to be reached for Jesus. Beside that, there is a great need for the manifest presence and power of God!
God sees the needs and He knows all that we need to do here, but He expects us to pray! Prayer unlocks the storehouse of His blessings and allows Him to move in our hearts and lives in a profound and powerful manner. God has so much that He wants to give us, but if we do not ask, we will never have it!
(Ill. Wouldn’t it be a shame to get to heaven and have the Lord show us all we could have been, all we could have had and all we could have seen if we had only asked Him for it? We must not neglect prayer!)
II. v. 3-4 AVOID FOOLISH PRAYING
A. Now, James tells them that there are times when they do pray and they still don’t get what they ask for because they ask from a wrong motive. They are asking for things that promote and satisfy self. They are praying unacceptable prayers and God simply will not answer that kind of praying! We are kidding ourselves if we think God will underwrite our selfishness!
The kind of praying James is referring to is praying that does not even consider the glory of God, much less make it the first priority. This kind of praying seeks what it wants without regard to what God wants. This kind of prayer is self-centered, selfish and basically sinful; and it will not be heeded by the Lord. How often are we guilty of praying for frivolous things without any regard for God’s will in the matter? (Ill. What if God gave you everything you ever asked for? You would be in a mess today.) This kind of praying gets no higher than the ceiling. The right kind of prayer always seeks the will of the Lord first and foremost!
B. Notice what James says in verse 4. He tells us that being the friend of the world violates our fellowship with God and hinders our prayer lives. He uses the terms “adulterers and adulteresses.” He is using the metaphor of marriage.
(Ill. Imagine a man and a woman get married, they are in love and things go well for a while. After a time, the wife develops a roving eye. She finds her another man and begins to spend her time with him and to give him her love. No, suppose while living this way she goes back to her husband and asks him for things like money, a car to drive, a place to live, etc. What do you think his response will be? Most men would give her a loud, “No!”)
Well, when you and I were saved, we became the bride of Christ, 2 Cor. 11:2. We are to remain pure and unspotted from the world. Our love, our worship and our allegiance is to be to Jesus only. When we embrace the world and ignore the Lord, we can forget effective praying. Those two do not go together! When we commit spiritual adultery against our Lord, it will mean that our prayers will go unanswered! You cannot be a friend of the world and walk a worldly path and expect God to keep on blessing your life!
C. God loves you and He desires to meet your needs, but He expects you to walk with Him in a devoted love relationship. Anything else forfeits His power and His answers to your prayers, Psa. 66:18; Pro. 15:8; Pro. 15:29.
III. v. 5-10 ADOPT FAITHFUL PRAYING(Ill. We want to avoid those forsaken prayers and those foolish prayers. We want to learn to pray prayers that are heard in Heaven and answered in our lives. These next few verses share some powerful principles that teach us about the kind of prayer life we need to adopt.)
A. v. 5 Be Sensitive – This verse literally means, “The Spirit of God in your heart has strong desires and He is very jealous for the glory of God.” James is telling us that we need to be sensitive to the voice of the Spirit of God in our prayer lives. The Spirit only desires that which brings glory God. He wants God to get every bit of the honor and the glory.
If we will learn to hear the voice of the Spirit, He will teach us to pray for those things which honor God. He knows the mind of God, 1 Cor. 2:11. He will share the mind of God with us and teach us to pray proper prayers, Rom. 8:26-27. Learn to hear the voice of the Spirit of God and watch Him revolutionize your prayer life.
B. v. 6 Be Submissive – One of the things the Spirit of God will do in our lives is make us more submissive to the Father. Did you know that prayer is not about getting what you want from God? Prayer is about God working in us to line our will up with His. When we get to the place where we want nothing but what God wants; when His will becomes our will; when we are willing to surrender all of our plans, goals, wants and wishes, then we are ready to see God move in answer to our prayers!
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray notice what He told them first, “And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.”, Luke 11:2. The first Adam missed this in the Garden of Eden. He said, “Not Thy will, but mine be done!” and he got into trouble. In fact, he caused so much trouble that we are still paying the price today. Our objective in prayer is not to bend God’s will to ours, it is to forsake our will and embrace His will totally! When we come to the place where we are willing to come into His presence humbly and broken, God will answer our prayers. As long as we feel like we can strut into the throne room of grace and call the shot, telling God what He is going to do, then our prayer lives will amount to nothing. God is looking for a broken, humble people that He can pour out His blessings upon!
C. v. 7 Be Steadfast – James tells us next that part of achieving a victorious prayer life is learning to stand against the devil. Did you know that prayer is warfare? That’s why most of our prayers are not answered. We see prayer as an opportunity to share our wish list with the Lord in the hopes that He will give us the things we desire. In fact, God has chosen to work through His people’s prayers.
Ill. Eph. 6:10-20. In this familiar passage, Paul talks about the armor of God. Notice verse 17; here, we are told to pray. If I understand this correctly, we put on the whole armor of God. We get ready for the battle, and then we go to war when we bow to pray! Have you every thought about it like that? Prayer is war! It is not a time for flippant, meaningless drivel! It is a time to draw the sword of the Spirit and go to war with the enemy. That is why we must learn to be sensitive to the Spirit and submitted to the Father before we take on the enemy. Only then will be we be strong enough to stand!
The devil knows this and that is why he fights our prayer lives so strongly. He doesn’t care about you going to church. He doesn’t care about the things we do here at church. He doesn’t care if I preach. He doesn’t care what we do as long as he can keep us from doing the most important thing of all: praying!
If you make up your mind tonight that you are going to be a prayer warrior, you had better look out! The devil will fight you tooth and nail. He will stir up the flesh, and the flesh hates prayer as much as the devil does! He will give you limitless reasons why you shouldn’t bother with prayer. He doesn’t care what you do as long as you don’t get involved in serious, agonizing prayer. For he knows that the power of God is manifested through the prayers of the saints!
But, if we can resist his temptations to avoid prayers and if we can learn to view prayer as warfare, then you can see victory of the devil! If you want to put the devil on the run, develop your prayer life and he will have a hard time around you!
D. v. 8 Be Separated – No man can come to God with dirty hands, a divided heart and a double mind. No man can come to God with open sin in his life, Psa. 66:18. No man can come to God if his heart is divided between the world and the Lord, Matt. 6:24. No man can come to God if he is trying to face two ways at the same time, 2 Chron. 7:14. Victory in our prayer lives demands that we come clean before the Lord and repent of our sins. It demands that we turn loose of the world and set our hearts and minds upon Him. God cannot and will not bless the prayer life of a personwho wants the best of both the world and God’s kingdom. It is either or, but not both!
E. v. 9-10 Be Sincere – The whole point of these two verses is that we need to take this matter of prayer seriously! In all honesty, much of our praying is done in a hurry. Many cannot even remember what they talked to God about this morning if the prayed at all. When we get serious about prayer, there will be a broken heart over the lost sinner; there will be tear dimmed eyes seeking the presence and power of God down at the church house. We need a return to brokenness before the Lord! We need a return to fervent prayers that ring the prayer bells of glory. We need to pray like Hezekiah did, 2 Chron. 32:20. We need to pray like Elijah, James 5:16-18! In all honesty, when was the last time you wept over sinners? When was the last time you fasted and prayed to know the mind of God? When the last time sleep evaded you and a spirit of prayer took you onto the battlefield for others? When was the last time you, like Jacob, got hold of God for something as refused to let go until He answered? May the Lord forgive you weak praying! There’s something about those prayers that really mean business! God knows our hearts and our motives. If we would have effective prayer lives, then we need to get serious about prayer and make it our top priority!
Conc: So, how’s your prayer life? If it isn’t all it should be, this altar is the place to be. Here, you can confess your sins and seek God for a renewed burden to pray. Maybe you want to bring your lost family right down here and weep for them before the Lord. Maybe you want to come and pray for the world wide ministry. Maybe you want to come and prayer for your brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling today. Maybe you want to come and claim victory over the devil. Maybe you are out of God’s will and need to get right with Him. Maybe you are not saved and would like to be. I don’t know your need, but this altar is the place to bring them all.
Come, pray to Jesus right now!
We all need to learn how to pray! Everything in our personal walk with God hinges on our ability to pray prayers that are heard and answered. Oh, we do a lot of praying, but often our prayers do not prevail. We need to learn how to pray prayers that “avail much”, prayers that prevail with God, prayers that are heard and answered. This passage has some important things to say about the matter of prayer. In fact, I see in these verses the Simple Steps To A Victorious Prayer Life. I want to share them with you this evening because I believe we all want to know how to have an effective, powerful prayer life. I believe God wants us to have that kind of prayer life. I believe that kind of prayer life is available to every one of God’s children today. Notice these Simple Steps To A Victorious Prayer Life.
I. v. 1-2 AVOID FORSAKEN PRAYING
A. Here is a people who are going after life. They are trying to get everything they can by any means they can. They fight, they scheme, they plan, they kill, they work, they war and they hate all in an effort to get the things they think they need. James tells them that they lack the things they are after in life simply because they do not ask for them!
B. How many times have we been guilty of the same thing? We operate within the realm of our own power, striving in our own energy to obtain the things we want and think we need, but we fail to get them because we do not take the time to ask God!
(Ill. There is no problem in your life, the life of this church, this city, this county, this state, this nation or this world that cannot be solved via the avenue of prayer! When God’s people begin to call on His name in the right way, they become partakers of his power, His peace and His glory. It is prayer that links our lives with God’s omnipotent power! We need to learn to utilize His power, and that can only be done through prayer!)
(Ill. A little boy was trying with all his might to move a large stone. His muscles were straining, sweat covered his face and brow as he tried with everything he had to move that stone. His father sat nearby watching all this with mild amusement. After a while he said to his son, “Son, are you using all of your strength?” The little boy answered, “Yes, I’m using all the strength I have!” His father said, “No, you really aren’t son. You haven’t asked me to help!”
How many times is that true in our lives? We struggle and strain, we war and wrestle, but we cannot achieve what we want to. Could it be that we have failed at a very obvious point? Could it be that we have failed to call on the Father and enlist His help in the situation? He wants to bless you. He wants to move in your life in power and glory, but often He doesn’t because we do not ask!)
C. Prayerlessness is a sin! We are commanded to pray – 1 Thes. 5:17; Luke 18:1. To fail to pray is to commit sin! Many need to repent of their prayerlessness! There is no substitute for a strong prayer life! Your greatness and success in your public life and ministry are directly tied to your prayer closet! What we are on the stage of life is not as important as what we are in the closet of prayer!
E. There is so much to be done here at while we are on this earth! There are souls that need to be saved; wayward brothers and sisters that need to be reclaimed;; lives that need to be changed for the glory of God; and the whole world needs to be reached for Jesus. Beside that, there is a great need for the manifest presence and power of God!
God sees the needs and He knows all that we need to do here, but He expects us to pray! Prayer unlocks the storehouse of His blessings and allows Him to move in our hearts and lives in a profound and powerful manner. God has so much that He wants to give us, but if we do not ask, we will never have it!
(Ill. Wouldn’t it be a shame to get to heaven and have the Lord show us all we could have been, all we could have had and all we could have seen if we had only asked Him for it? We must not neglect prayer!)
II. v. 3-4 AVOID FOOLISH PRAYING
A. Now, James tells them that there are times when they do pray and they still don’t get what they ask for because they ask from a wrong motive. They are asking for things that promote and satisfy self. They are praying unacceptable prayers and God simply will not answer that kind of praying! We are kidding ourselves if we think God will underwrite our selfishness!
The kind of praying James is referring to is praying that does not even consider the glory of God, much less make it the first priority. This kind of praying seeks what it wants without regard to what God wants. This kind of prayer is self-centered, selfish and basically sinful; and it will not be heeded by the Lord. How often are we guilty of praying for frivolous things without any regard for God’s will in the matter? (Ill. What if God gave you everything you ever asked for? You would be in a mess today.) This kind of praying gets no higher than the ceiling. The right kind of prayer always seeks the will of the Lord first and foremost!
B. Notice what James says in verse 4. He tells us that being the friend of the world violates our fellowship with God and hinders our prayer lives. He uses the terms “adulterers and adulteresses.” He is using the metaphor of marriage.
(Ill. Imagine a man and a woman get married, they are in love and things go well for a while. After a time, the wife develops a roving eye. She finds her another man and begins to spend her time with him and to give him her love. No, suppose while living this way she goes back to her husband and asks him for things like money, a car to drive, a place to live, etc. What do you think his response will be? Most men would give her a loud, “No!”)
Well, when you and I were saved, we became the bride of Christ, 2 Cor. 11:2. We are to remain pure and unspotted from the world. Our love, our worship and our allegiance is to be to Jesus only. When we embrace the world and ignore the Lord, we can forget effective praying. Those two do not go together! When we commit spiritual adultery against our Lord, it will mean that our prayers will go unanswered! You cannot be a friend of the world and walk a worldly path and expect God to keep on blessing your life!
C. God loves you and He desires to meet your needs, but He expects you to walk with Him in a devoted love relationship. Anything else forfeits His power and His answers to your prayers, Psa. 66:18; Pro. 15:8; Pro. 15:29.
III. v. 5-10 ADOPT FAITHFUL PRAYING(Ill. We want to avoid those forsaken prayers and those foolish prayers. We want to learn to pray prayers that are heard in Heaven and answered in our lives. These next few verses share some powerful principles that teach us about the kind of prayer life we need to adopt.)
A. v. 5 Be Sensitive – This verse literally means, “The Spirit of God in your heart has strong desires and He is very jealous for the glory of God.” James is telling us that we need to be sensitive to the voice of the Spirit of God in our prayer lives. The Spirit only desires that which brings glory God. He wants God to get every bit of the honor and the glory.
If we will learn to hear the voice of the Spirit, He will teach us to pray for those things which honor God. He knows the mind of God, 1 Cor. 2:11. He will share the mind of God with us and teach us to pray proper prayers, Rom. 8:26-27. Learn to hear the voice of the Spirit of God and watch Him revolutionize your prayer life.
B. v. 6 Be Submissive – One of the things the Spirit of God will do in our lives is make us more submissive to the Father. Did you know that prayer is not about getting what you want from God? Prayer is about God working in us to line our will up with His. When we get to the place where we want nothing but what God wants; when His will becomes our will; when we are willing to surrender all of our plans, goals, wants and wishes, then we are ready to see God move in answer to our prayers!
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray notice what He told them first, “And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.”, Luke 11:2. The first Adam missed this in the Garden of Eden. He said, “Not Thy will, but mine be done!” and he got into trouble. In fact, he caused so much trouble that we are still paying the price today. Our objective in prayer is not to bend God’s will to ours, it is to forsake our will and embrace His will totally! When we come to the place where we are willing to come into His presence humbly and broken, God will answer our prayers. As long as we feel like we can strut into the throne room of grace and call the shot, telling God what He is going to do, then our prayer lives will amount to nothing. God is looking for a broken, humble people that He can pour out His blessings upon!
C. v. 7 Be Steadfast – James tells us next that part of achieving a victorious prayer life is learning to stand against the devil. Did you know that prayer is warfare? That’s why most of our prayers are not answered. We see prayer as an opportunity to share our wish list with the Lord in the hopes that He will give us the things we desire. In fact, God has chosen to work through His people’s prayers.
Ill. Eph. 6:10-20. In this familiar passage, Paul talks about the armor of God. Notice verse 17; here, we are told to pray. If I understand this correctly, we put on the whole armor of God. We get ready for the battle, and then we go to war when we bow to pray! Have you every thought about it like that? Prayer is war! It is not a time for flippant, meaningless drivel! It is a time to draw the sword of the Spirit and go to war with the enemy. That is why we must learn to be sensitive to the Spirit and submitted to the Father before we take on the enemy. Only then will be we be strong enough to stand!
The devil knows this and that is why he fights our prayer lives so strongly. He doesn’t care about you going to church. He doesn’t care about the things we do here at church. He doesn’t care if I preach. He doesn’t care what we do as long as he can keep us from doing the most important thing of all: praying!
If you make up your mind tonight that you are going to be a prayer warrior, you had better look out! The devil will fight you tooth and nail. He will stir up the flesh, and the flesh hates prayer as much as the devil does! He will give you limitless reasons why you shouldn’t bother with prayer. He doesn’t care what you do as long as you don’t get involved in serious, agonizing prayer. For he knows that the power of God is manifested through the prayers of the saints!
But, if we can resist his temptations to avoid prayers and if we can learn to view prayer as warfare, then you can see victory of the devil! If you want to put the devil on the run, develop your prayer life and he will have a hard time around you!
D. v. 8 Be Separated – No man can come to God with dirty hands, a divided heart and a double mind. No man can come to God with open sin in his life, Psa. 66:18. No man can come to God if his heart is divided between the world and the Lord, Matt. 6:24. No man can come to God if he is trying to face two ways at the same time, 2 Chron. 7:14. Victory in our prayer lives demands that we come clean before the Lord and repent of our sins. It demands that we turn loose of the world and set our hearts and minds upon Him. God cannot and will not bless the prayer life of a personwho wants the best of both the world and God’s kingdom. It is either or, but not both!
E. v. 9-10 Be Sincere – The whole point of these two verses is that we need to take this matter of prayer seriously! In all honesty, much of our praying is done in a hurry. Many cannot even remember what they talked to God about this morning if the prayed at all. When we get serious about prayer, there will be a broken heart over the lost sinner; there will be tear dimmed eyes seeking the presence and power of God down at the church house. We need a return to brokenness before the Lord! We need a return to fervent prayers that ring the prayer bells of glory. We need to pray like Hezekiah did, 2 Chron. 32:20. We need to pray like Elijah, James 5:16-18! In all honesty, when was the last time you wept over sinners? When was the last time you fasted and prayed to know the mind of God? When the last time sleep evaded you and a spirit of prayer took you onto the battlefield for others? When was the last time you, like Jacob, got hold of God for something as refused to let go until He answered? May the Lord forgive you weak praying! There’s something about those prayers that really mean business! God knows our hearts and our motives. If we would have effective prayer lives, then we need to get serious about prayer and make it our top priority!
Conc: So, how’s your prayer life? If it isn’t all it should be, this altar is the place to be. Here, you can confess your sins and seek God for a renewed burden to pray. Maybe you want to bring your lost family right down here and weep for them before the Lord. Maybe you want to come and pray for the world wide ministry. Maybe you want to come and prayer for your brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling today. Maybe you want to come and claim victory over the devil. Maybe you are out of God’s will and need to get right with Him. Maybe you are not saved and would like to be. I don’t know your need, but this altar is the place to bring them all.
Come, pray to Jesus right now!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Links for Bible Quizzes on the Internet
Hi all,
You can access all the exciting Bible quiz links here:
Bible Quiz 1 - Remember the general location of the books in the Bible http://www.mgcpa.com/mark/other/bible/books.shtml
Bible Quiz 2 - Remember the location of the books of the Bible visually http://www.mgcpa.com/mark/other/bible/location.shtmlhttp://www.mgcpa.com/mark/other/bible/locationnew.shtml - for the New Testament
http://www.mgcpa.com/mark/other/bible/locationold.shtml - for the Old Testament
Bible Quiz 3 - Place the books of the Bible in correct order
http://www.mgcpa.com/mark/other/bible/order.shtml
This test is designed for Bible teachers who want to get an idea of how much their
students know about the Bible.
http://www.bible-researcher.com/quiz1.html
You can view the answer sheet for the above quiz here:
http://www.bible-researcher.com/quiz1a.html
Bible Quizzes
http://www.biblequizzes.org.uk/bible-quizzes.php
http://www.biblequizzes.org.uk/quiz.php?booksofthebible
A nice link for Bible Quizzes
http://www.twopaths.com/biblequizzes.html
Bible Word Search quiz:
http://www.twopaths.com/wordsearch.htmhttp://www.biblequizzes.org.uk/bible-wordsearches.php
You can access all the exciting Bible quiz links here:
Bible Quiz 1 - Remember the general location of the books in the Bible http://www.mgcpa.com/mark/other/bible/books.shtml
Bible Quiz 2 - Remember the location of the books of the Bible visually http://www.mgcpa.com/mark/other/bible/location.shtmlhttp://www.mgcpa.com/mark/other/bible/locationnew.shtml - for the New Testament
http://www.mgcpa.com/mark/other/bible/locationold.shtml - for the Old Testament
Bible Quiz 3 - Place the books of the Bible in correct order
http://www.mgcpa.com/mark/other/bible/order.shtml
This test is designed for Bible teachers who want to get an idea of how much their
students know about the Bible.
http://www.bible-researcher.com/quiz1.html
You can view the answer sheet for the above quiz here:
http://www.bible-researcher.com/quiz1a.html
Bible Quizzes
http://www.biblequizzes.org.uk/bible-quizzes.php
http://www.biblequizzes.org.uk/quiz.php?booksofthebible
A nice link for Bible Quizzes
http://www.twopaths.com/biblequizzes.html
Bible Word Search quiz:
http://www.twopaths.com/wordsearch.htmhttp://www.biblequizzes.org.uk/bible-wordsearches.php
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Choose Life !
References: Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 1; Philemon 1-20; Luke 14:25-33
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Moses said to all Israel the words which the Lord commanded him, "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose Life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, a
nd to Jacob."
Today’s lessons seem rooted in the Old Testament reading. Moses lays out for the people of Israel the possibility of choice…that it is within them to Choose Life! God promises his people that He will hold up his end of the bargain. In the chapters immediately preceding today’s lesson we are reminded that in the face of Israel’s sin and disobedience, God still saw to it that in their wanderings in the desert their clothes did not tear and their shoes did not wear out. God is faithful and can be trusted. But the choice to live by the commandments, loving the Lord, and living a God-focused life is ours for the choosing.
Think of the commandments…don’t steal, commit adultery, dishonor your family, swear, kill, lie, etc. There is a reason God warns against mistreating each other. There isn’t any one of those behaviors that is life-giving or brings peace or joy. This doesn’t apply just to people who go to church…it’s innately true in what it is to be human. God knows that. Steal, lie, kill…do it, and you will be miserable. You will die from the inside out.
The Psalmist continues the same theme when he/she writes: ‘happy are they who have not walked in wicked ways’. It’s not so much that God sits in judgement and says, “you’re doomed”, but rather that our choices doom us by cheating us from becoming the person we were made to be.
In the Philemon passage, Paul writes to his friend, a slave owner, and asks him to set his servant free. Onesimus was a runaway slave who had been converted to follow Jesus Christ through Paul’s ministry and teaching. Paul had taken this fledgling under his wing. But the time was coming for Paul to return him to his ‘owner’ with the hope that Philemon would set him free from the bonds of legal title. Paul notes that as a slave, Onesimus was a runaway…and useless to anyone. But free, he could benefit both his former owner and Paul. Onesimus had gone through a change of heart. Onesimus, like all of us, would be of more value when he could freely choose to serve rather than being expected to serve under the bond of slavery. Again, these are not particularly deep spiritual teachings…they are pretty common insights into the nature of what it is to be human. Paul is telling Philemon that by Choosing Life and setting his servant free he would receive more joy than he would gain holding on to Onesimus’ title.
Even the Gospel writer encourages the reader to Choose Life by letting go of unhealthy attachments (whether family or possessions) and to place God first and foremost in one’s life.
Have you ever had an experience where you wanted something, and the harder you tried the farther you moved from your desired goal? And, have you ever had to let that same desire go, only to find it returned to you a thousand fold?
‘If you want to be my disciple’, says Jesus, Choose Life…let go of those things that separate you from putting God first in your life. Learn what it is to cooperate with what it is to be truly human. Obey God’s commandments…they are there for a reason. Set free those whom you are afraid to loose. Holding on is choking both of you and creates a seedbed of anger.
Choose Life!
regards
Harry
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Moses said to all Israel the words which the Lord commanded him, "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose Life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, a
nd to Jacob."Today’s lessons seem rooted in the Old Testament reading. Moses lays out for the people of Israel the possibility of choice…that it is within them to Choose Life! God promises his people that He will hold up his end of the bargain. In the chapters immediately preceding today’s lesson we are reminded that in the face of Israel’s sin and disobedience, God still saw to it that in their wanderings in the desert their clothes did not tear and their shoes did not wear out. God is faithful and can be trusted. But the choice to live by the commandments, loving the Lord, and living a God-focused life is ours for the choosing.
Think of the commandments…don’t steal, commit adultery, dishonor your family, swear, kill, lie, etc. There is a reason God warns against mistreating each other. There isn’t any one of those behaviors that is life-giving or brings peace or joy. This doesn’t apply just to people who go to church…it’s innately true in what it is to be human. God knows that. Steal, lie, kill…do it, and you will be miserable. You will die from the inside out.
The Psalmist continues the same theme when he/she writes: ‘happy are they who have not walked in wicked ways’. It’s not so much that God sits in judgement and says, “you’re doomed”, but rather that our choices doom us by cheating us from becoming the person we were made to be.
In the Philemon passage, Paul writes to his friend, a slave owner, and asks him to set his servant free. Onesimus was a runaway slave who had been converted to follow Jesus Christ through Paul’s ministry and teaching. Paul had taken this fledgling under his wing. But the time was coming for Paul to return him to his ‘owner’ with the hope that Philemon would set him free from the bonds of legal title. Paul notes that as a slave, Onesimus was a runaway…and useless to anyone. But free, he could benefit both his former owner and Paul. Onesimus had gone through a change of heart. Onesimus, like all of us, would be of more value when he could freely choose to serve rather than being expected to serve under the bond of slavery. Again, these are not particularly deep spiritual teachings…they are pretty common insights into the nature of what it is to be human. Paul is telling Philemon that by Choosing Life and setting his servant free he would receive more joy than he would gain holding on to Onesimus’ title.
Even the Gospel writer encourages the reader to Choose Life by letting go of unhealthy attachments (whether family or possessions) and to place God first and foremost in one’s life.
Have you ever had an experience where you wanted something, and the harder you tried the farther you moved from your desired goal? And, have you ever had to let that same desire go, only to find it returned to you a thousand fold?
‘If you want to be my disciple’, says Jesus, Choose Life…let go of those things that separate you from putting God first in your life. Learn what it is to cooperate with what it is to be truly human. Obey God’s commandments…they are there for a reason. Set free those whom you are afraid to loose. Holding on is choking both of you and creates a seedbed of anger.
Choose Life!
regards
Harry
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Live like Ezra of the old!
For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. - Ezra 7:10
In the book of Ezra we read in Chapter 7 and verse 10 that Ezra prepared his heart to SEEK the law of the Lord, and to DO it and to TEACH in Israel statues and judgments.
Ezra was a well-read person and he was a teacher of the Law. Inspite of being busy and thorough in scriptures, he made up his mind and prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord.
In these last days, we too, should be like Ezra of the old. We need to first
Seek the law of the LORD with all our heart - this means that we need to read the Word, meditate and understand the Word in all its contexts. Many a times, we are carried away by the 'business' of the world and we forget to spend time with Him. We look to the gifts rather than the giver says a proverb. How true it is! We are more focussed on the created things than on the creater himself. Like Ezra, we too should prepare our hearts to seek the Bible, the law, the living words. In the book of Isaiah, it says to seek the Lord while he is near. In the book of Amos, it says: Amos 8: 11, 12
11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.This prophecy is going to be fulfilled soon. We are going to face a famine of the Word of God. But before that happens, we need to prepare and equip ourselves with the word of God.
Again, I stress on the fact that we need to prepare our hearts to seek the law of the Lord.
The second thing that Ezra did was to DO the word of God. It means that he did not just seek it and forget it, he made it a point to act according to the word of God. Many a times, we hear the saying 'walk the talk'. That means, we need to walk according to what we say. We need to be what we profess ourselves to be. We need to act according to the word of God. In today's world, we lack this. We are ready to stand and speak about the word of God but we are never willing to act/do what it says us to do.
The third thing that Ezra did was to TEACH the word of God. He did not stop at walking the talk, he taught many others the word which was a rarity at that point of time. We also need to do the same. We need to teach people the word of God.
We tend to look at the other way, we first teach the word of God, then we try doing it and then towards the end we try to seek the word of God. This is not the way. It should be the other way round.
First SEEK the word.
Second ACT according to the word.
Third TEACH the word.
Wishing that you all will follow Ezra's footsteps in Seeking, Doing and Teaching the Word of God.
regards
Harry
Old and New Testament sermons
Hi all,
I have benefitted much from the following site. http://www.sermonnotebook.org/
I have gone through the Old Testament and New Testament sermons and have learnt a lot from them. I wish you too, go through the link and spend some time going through the sermons.
Once you enter the site, click the link 'Sermons and Outlines'. You will find five links on the page:
Most Recent Sermons
New Testament Sermons
Old Testament Sermons
Sermon Series
Audio Sermons
Please note that the sermons on this site are not intended to replace your personal study of the Word of God!
You can go through the Sermon series to get a complete picture of what you are reading. You can download the audio sermons into your MP3 player or on your iPod and can play whenever and where ever you want.
Be blessed!
I will keep you posted on many other such wonderful information.
regards
Harry
http://www.sermonnotebook.org/
I have benefitted much from the following site. http://www.sermonnotebook.org/
I have gone through the Old Testament and New Testament sermons and have learnt a lot from them. I wish you too, go through the link and spend some time going through the sermons.
Once you enter the site, click the link 'Sermons and Outlines'. You will find five links on the page:
Most Recent Sermons
New Testament Sermons
Old Testament Sermons
Sermon Series
Audio Sermons
Please note that the sermons on this site are not intended to replace your personal study of the Word of God!
You can go through the Sermon series to get a complete picture of what you are reading. You can download the audio sermons into your MP3 player or on your iPod and can play whenever and where ever you want.
Be blessed!
I will keep you posted on many other such wonderful information.
regards
Harry
http://www.sermonnotebook.org/
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