Have you seen this amazing movie. A story that will change the way you look at your relationship forever. A must see. If you have a straining relationship with your partner this is the movie for you. An amazing story to teach you how to let God fight your battles for you. A must see. Originally posted 2016-03-03 11:47:38.
A rainbow is seen after an air strike by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on the main field hospital in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus October 29, 2015. The story of Noah’s Ark is one of the best-known in the Old Testament. We teach it to children in Sunday School and they love the idea of the animals going two by two into the ark. We don’t major on what happens to the rest of the world when we teach the story to children, which is fair enough (though we ought to face up to it when we preach it to adults). One part of the story that adults and children alike respond to, though, is the story of the rainbow. In Genesis 9:12-17, after the floods have gone down, God says he will make a covenant with human beings and that the rainbow will be a sign of it: “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between man and the earth… Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.” But why should it be a rainbow? One reason is that there’s a sort of poetic appropriateness about it. Rainbows appear after storms as the light from the sun hits the water droplets in the air and breaks into the different colours we don’t normally see. A light rain may still be falling, but generally speaking you know when you see the rainbow that, no matter how fierce the storm may have been, it’s over. You don’t have to worry about rain never stopping. But the other reason is this. The Hebrew word isn’t “rainbow”, it’s just “bow”, as in “bow and arrow”. It is a war bow, a deadly weapon. There has been terrible destruction on the earth, and God has done it. He has rained down floods that have exterminated every living thing apart from what’s in the ark. We are to imagine him taking aim at the world from heaven. And the point about the bow that he “sets in the clouds” is that it’s pointing the wrong way. It cannot be used as a weapon to threaten the world any more. The sign is an enduring mark of God’s loving care for the world he has made. In the context of the story, it means that he will not sweep the pieces from the board when the game isn’t going his way; human beings will disappoint and betray him endlessly, but he will work with them patiently and lovingly to bring the world to good. But the rainbow has a personal meaning for us as well. George Matheson was a famous Scottish scholar and hymn writer. He had a hard life in many ways. It’s probably not true, as is sometimes said, that his fiancée broke off their engagement because of his blindness (he was almost completely blind by the time he was 20), but he had trials enough. One of his hymns, O love that wilt not let me go, contains the verse: O Joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee; I trace the rainbow through the rain And feel the promise is not vain That morn shall tearless be. God’s war bow is turned away from all of us. No matter how low we may feel and whatever sins we may be guilty of, he will not cast us aside. He will always work for our good; we always have a future. Originally posted 2016-03-03 08:04:53.
So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. Romans 8:35 MSG Originally posted 2016-03-03 06:55:12.
Have you ever felt like your prayers don’t reach God or that God is too far away for you to commune with Him? We all have at some point. We are told that God and sin cannot co-exist. As a result, many believers feel that God abandons them when they sin. Does God truly leave us when we sin and do we have to earn back the Holy Spirit’s in-filling every time we repent? The Bible makes it clear to us that although we may sometimes feel like God is far or that we no longer deserve God’s presence, our Father is with us. Psalm 94:14 says “For the LORD will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance.” Although it’s true that God and sin cannot co-exist, that’s the beauty and the power of the cross. When Jesus gave up His life for all, He gave us direct access to the Father and the power is made available through the Holy Spirit. So how about non-Christians? Does God forsake them? By all means, no! In fact, God pursues everyone, most especially the lost. He is always finding ways to make himself known to those whom He loves. Matthew 5:45 says that God “sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” And when we refuse Christ’s saving knowledge, God is there grieving. God doesn’t give up on people. People give up on God. God in his ferocious love continues to pursue us and give His all to us. People often ask why the unbelieving still become rich and why criminals still continue to breathe life. There can be many reasons for those situations, but one of the most compelling explanations is because God loves them. God’s love is not swayed by our unbelief nor our inability to be holy. While we were (and still are) sinners, Christ gave Himself up for us because He has chosen to never leave nor forsake us. Although sin is powerful and can disqualify us from entering God’s presence, He found a way for us to commune with Him despite our flaws because nothing can separate us from the love of God. Does God hate sin? Yes, He does. Is He just? Yes, He is. But Jesus has paid the price in full so that we may have access to God at anytime and so that we would never be separated from the presence of God ever again. Originally posted 2016-03-02 13:43:30.
Pastor Chip Ingram of Venture Christian Church in Los Gatos, California, knows that following rules can be difficult, but he reminds Christians that love is the driving force out of every rule and parameter set by God. Ingram says God made rules regarding love and sex because He wants His children to have nothing but the very best when it comes to love, sex, and relationships. The truth is every gift that flows out of love almost always has some rules and parameters that are set around it. “God knows that sex outside of marriage is second-rate sex – it’s sex with guilt and shame attached and some pretty devastating consequences,” he writes in an article for The Christian Post. A sexually immoral lifestyle, according to Ingram, is one where couples live together outside of marriage or engage in behaviour that would cause the partner to desire them sexually outside the bonds of marriage. “Even if someone doesn’t believe in God’s Word or follow His rules, it is undeniable that there are certain spiritual, physical and emotional price tags that go along with sex outside of marriage,” Ingram says. He cites statistics obtained by researchers from UCLA, who discovered that couples who live together prior to marriage have a 50 percent higher rate of divorce than those who do not. “They are also more likely to experience infidelity in marriage. Studies have also found that the introduction of sex into a dating relationship almost always ushers in the breakup of the relationship,” he says. This is why Ingram says it makes perfect sense for God to tell His children: “Keep the fire of sex in the fireplace of marriage. If you take it out and put it on the living room floor, it will burn the house down.” He explains that God isn’t “withholding” sex from those who are unmarried since His ultimate desire is to let Christians experience deep, intimate love that will last a lifetime. “The purpose of His rules is to maximise our relationships and pleasure in the long run,” Ingram says. “Real, loving relationships demand sexual purity. People that only want a one-night stand don’t need purity because their behaviour is about self-worship and not about truly loving another person. If we want a loving and lasting relationship, then sexual purity is a must.” Originally posted 2016-03-02 12:21:09.
Being the only saved member of your family can be hard. I have counselled and discipled many church members who have had struggles dealing with parents who have not yet accepted Jesus as their saviour and lord. Through the many times that people with unsaved family members have come to me for advice, I have never been one to get ahead of myself and tell them what they should do. As a minister and a leader in our congregation, my only responsibility is to tell my spiritual family what the Bible says. And I’ve heard people say, “But doesn’t the Bible tell me not to be yoked with unbelievers?” That’s when I realized that many sons and daughters of unsaved parents already know what the Bible says, but they just aren’t hearing it right. Here are some things that the Bible does NOT say about how we are to treat and respond to unsaved parents and family members. They are saved just because you’re saved Acts 16:31 declares “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household,” but this is in a cultural context where the values of the family are always accepted as the values of every individual in the household. Today, this is no longer the case. Many individuals place higher weight on individual values over family values, and to counter that, every one must hear the gospel. While it is more likely that your family will hear the gospel and then be saved, it will never happen unless they hear and believe the gospel. And here’s news flash: you have the gospel that they so desperately need and you can give it to them. Their being unsaved gives you a reason to disobey them The Bible doesn’t say, “Children obey your Christian parents” or “Honor your believing father and mother.” Ephesians 6:1-2 make it clear: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother.” Whether your parents are Christian or not, we are called to obey them. In fact, acting in disobedience toward parents just because they are non-believers could very well be a legitimate reason for them to never turn to Christ in faith. They are worse sinners than you The Bible makes it clear in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” You aren’t less of a sinner than your non-believing parents, but you do have God’s forgiving grace that has cleansed you of all unrighteousness. Originally posted 2016-03-02 10:58:59.
