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10-24-2008, 06:38 PM
Today I will...set my heart to long for that which Jesus longs for.
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Blind Bartimaeus Receives His Sight
46Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
48Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
49Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." 50Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
51"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see."
52"Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. Mark 10
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We Receive From God By Faith
MATTHEW 9:29 NKJ
29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith let it be to you."
Have you ever wondered why God blessed someone -- when it was obvious they did not deserve it?
Do you wonder why you are not more blessed -- even though you are doing your best to be a good Christian?
The answer is faith.
We do not receive from God based on what we deserve, but on what we believe.
GALATIANS 3:9 ICB
9 Abraham believed this, and because he believed, he was blessed. It is the same today. All who believe today are blessed just as Abraham was blessed.
Our receiving from God is not based on our works, but on God's grace. We have access to God's grace by our faith -- not through our merit.
ROMANS 5:2 NKJ
2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand . . . .
Many try to earn something from God when He has already given us all things through Christ. Now by faith we must appropriate what God has provided.
Don't despair if your faith is not too strong. The cure for weak faith is to feed on the Word of God, the Bible.
ROMANS 10:17 NKJ
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
If you feed your heart and mind the Word of God, your faith will grow strong. You feed it in by reading it, hearing it, speaking it, and meditating on it.
SAY THIS: I will feed on God's Word and my faith will grow. Then I will receive all God has for me.
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Minister To Your Emotions
October 24
KEEP and protect me, O God, for in You I have found refuge, and in You do I put my trust and hide myself.
—Psalm 16:1
God gave us feelings, and it is all right to minister to your emotions or to the emotions of other people. Do something kind for yourself to keep your emotions healthy; just don’t be ruled by them.
Treat yourself to a hot bath or a walk in the fresh air. Do what you need to do to get emotional release. If yesterday wore you out, get refreshed spiritually and emotionally before starting a new day. Find some time alone with God, listen to teaching or music tapes, and refill your heart with an awareness of God’s presence.
From the book Starting Your Day Right
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Achieve the Best.
It is important to know where you want to go in this life. You have the potential to reach your goal, to have your best dreams come true, and get to where you want to go, only if you know what your goal is. Your expectation must have a clearly defined objective. You cannot expect the best if you think aimlessly.
No. 98 in a series of 100 Power Thoughts from The Power of Positive Thinking, the All-Time inspirational Best-Selling Book by Norman Vincent Peale.
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NACR Daily Meditation
Friday 24th of October 2008
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because
your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for
each other is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about
your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
2 Thessalonians 1:4
There is no magical formula for change. But there are some helpful principles.
First of all, change happens little by little. As this text puts it,
our capacity for trust ‘grows more and more’ and our ability to love and
to receive love ‘increases’. These changes, like all of the most important
changes in life, do not happen as a one-time event. An important change
may require us to make a decision at a certain moment, it also requires
a process that takes place over months and years.
Second, change is not a race. The change process can not be rushed. We
often want to ‘hurry it up’, but we can’t. Change that is real and long-lasting,
requires patience and perseverance. When we have been practicing our dysfunctions
for decades, we can expect that unlearning them will also take time.
Third, change requires that we practice the disciplines of honesty and
fellowship. There is no recovery unless we find ways to move out of denial
and isolation. What a wonderful gift it is to be able to share our struggles
and victories with people who will ‘always thank God for us’ and who will
encourage us, affirm us and hold us accountable.
Lord, I want my faith to grow.
I want my capacity for love to increase.
Little by little.
One day at a time.
That’s what I need.
Help me to move out of denial,
And out of isolation.
Help me to do my part to make change possible in my life.
Amen.
-----
Ultimate Good
Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
“It’s hard to understand how situations that create fear or discouragement could be as worthwhile as events that produce feelings of peace and delight,” said a friend. We agreed there are no simple explanations for life’s mixture of good and bad.
For the past fifteen years I’ve prayed: “God, show me who I am now and who I can become; who you created me to be.” In retrospect I see how God has answered this prayer. The painful and confusing times uncovered my need and propelled me to seek relief from self-destructive thoughts and actions. Yet, I still find it difficult to comprehend how my poor choices and human weaknesses may trigger positive change. Can both positive and negative situations work for ultimate good?
“All things work together for good to those who love God,” wrote Paul. But the Greek word “good” does not mean always pleasant and comfortable. “Good” means: beneficial, profitable in the long run; that which contributes to growth. We can move toward acceptance and trust that all things work collectively for our good.
Lord, I wish everything in my life was pleasant,
but I don’t want my distaste for the uncomfortable
to thwart my growth.
Please help me.
2008 Joan C. Webb
-----
Love Worth Finding - Oct. 24, 2008
October 24
Don't Try to Hurry the Harvest
“. . . the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.” James 5:7b
Sometimes the things that count the most seem to take the longest to get here.
Some giant sequoias in California are 300 feet tall. That’s the height of a 30 story building! Yet each one began with the smallest of seeds that began growing and maturing since before the time of Christ! That’s a long time.
You may say that you’re going to serve God. Then, you start to do something for Him, but when you don’t reap a harvest immediately, you get discouraged. Don’t try to hurry the harvest. In due season, you will reap.
Have you shared Christ with people and yet they haven’t been saved? Read Isaiah 55:11 and Romans 10:13 and receive His encouragement.
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Devotional For Dieters
October 24
Isaiah 41:10
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
The evening was the worst. About an hour before bedtime, Eleanor would begin to get cravings. The worst possible thing to do would be to eat right before bed. Sometimes her stomach would growl so much that she thought she would wake up the neighborhood. On those occasions, Eleanor asked God for a little quick relief and went straight to bed. Better that than to pig out and feel lousy the rest of the night and guilty all the following day! God can grant us blessed relief from the whinings of the stomach. He can take our mind off our stomachs and give us the strength to say no!
Today's thought: The waistline won't grow if I learn to say no!
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I Will Rejoice!
Day-by-Day
Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls--Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)
At times it seems that everything around you is collapsing. Endeavors you invested in may fail. People to whom you minister may disappoint you. The business or career you worked hard to build may crumble. These times, as difficult as they are, are opportunities to stop and examine what is truly important to you.
Habakkuk witnessed the collapse of most of what mattered to him. Yet through the loss, failure, and disappointment, he was able to distinguish between what was precious to him and what was transitory and empty. He came to the point where he could sincerely say that even if everything around him failed, he still would rejoice in God. If the fig tree bore no fruit; if the vine produced no grapes; if the flocks and herds stopped reproducing; he would still praise God. His praise might not come easily, as he watched everything fall short of his expectations, but he would praise God nonetheless. Habakkuk could not make fig trees produce figs. He could not control the productivity of the flocks and herds, but he could control his own response to God. He chose to praise the Lord.
Do things seem to be falling apart around you? You can still praise God. Your praise for Him does not depend on the success of your endeavors but on God’s nature and His love and faithfulness to you. Ask God to help you look past worldly concerns to understand the reasons you have to praise Him.
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Make God the top priority in your life
Begin every day with God, the Father, and enter alone in secret into His Presence and worship Him in spirit and truth. Amen.
Beginning each day with God is the best way to begin the day, there isn't any better way to begin each day. Amen.
Jesus said, " I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End." Amen.
Brethren, Jesus taught us to love God first, not last, when He said, " This is the first and greatest commandment." Amen.
Paul taught us, in all things let God be first and in all things He must have the preeminence. Amen.
Brethren, where does God rank in your list of priorities?
Is He at the top of the list, the middle of the list, the bottom of the list or is He not on the list at all?
Make God the top priority in your life. Amen.
©10/24/2001 Jim Welch
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-/\/\-----------------------------------------------------------------
\ / WHAT JESUS DID! -- http://www.heartlight.org/
--\/------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, October 24, 2008
I'll Go Ahead of You
"But {after I die}, I will rise from death. Then I will go to
Galilee. I will be there before you go there."
-- Mark 14:28 (ERV)
KEY THOUGHT:
Facing his own death and the desertion of his friends, Jesus' faith was
strong. He trusted that God would raise him from the dead and bring him
back to his disciples to finish his work of preparing them for the
future. Jesus' faith in the face of death and his victory over death in
the resurrection have reassured Christians for centuries that they
would again see those that they love in the Lord after death. May God
give us such faith.
TODAY'S PRAYER:
Eternal Father, please give me such faith! In Jesus' powerful name I
pray. Amen.
-----
MY FATHER’S STRONG ARMS
“He is the Father, and we are His children.” Alcoholics Anonymous, page 62
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John1:12
For what it's worth: My insane prejudice toward religion decided that the idea of being a child of God was a Church fable. Even if true, God had demonstrated He had no love for this child. I came to Alcoholics Anonymous with that attitude. After hundreds of AA meetings, hearing untold numbers of AA people share what God had done for them, the eyes of my dark soul opened slightly and I began to see all manner of insanity in my thinking about God. As this happened, I noticed how often God was mentioned as “Father” in AA literature, and that Dr. Bob referred to His Higher Power as his Heavenly Father. I could not help but notice that this new concept of God as my Father gave me warmth and comfort where there had been only a cold, dark, empty soul. Being a good drunk, of course, I wanted more of that good feeling. Fortunately, even my feeble attempt at prayer and meditation nourished the idea so much that I have come to believe that I am a child of God, one He loves dearly. He does for me something I do not recall my father ever doing. He opens up His loving arms to me anytime I need to run to Him and jump up in His lap just to be held in His strong arms.
God bless you!
Joe W.
-----
Blind Bartimaeus Receives His Sight
46Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
48Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
49Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." 50Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
51"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see."
52"Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. Mark 10
-----
We Receive From God By Faith
MATTHEW 9:29 NKJ
29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith let it be to you."
Have you ever wondered why God blessed someone -- when it was obvious they did not deserve it?
Do you wonder why you are not more blessed -- even though you are doing your best to be a good Christian?
The answer is faith.
We do not receive from God based on what we deserve, but on what we believe.
GALATIANS 3:9 ICB
9 Abraham believed this, and because he believed, he was blessed. It is the same today. All who believe today are blessed just as Abraham was blessed.
Our receiving from God is not based on our works, but on God's grace. We have access to God's grace by our faith -- not through our merit.
ROMANS 5:2 NKJ
2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand . . . .
Many try to earn something from God when He has already given us all things through Christ. Now by faith we must appropriate what God has provided.
Don't despair if your faith is not too strong. The cure for weak faith is to feed on the Word of God, the Bible.
ROMANS 10:17 NKJ
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
If you feed your heart and mind the Word of God, your faith will grow strong. You feed it in by reading it, hearing it, speaking it, and meditating on it.
SAY THIS: I will feed on God's Word and my faith will grow. Then I will receive all God has for me.
-----
Minister To Your Emotions
October 24
KEEP and protect me, O God, for in You I have found refuge, and in You do I put my trust and hide myself.
—Psalm 16:1
God gave us feelings, and it is all right to minister to your emotions or to the emotions of other people. Do something kind for yourself to keep your emotions healthy; just don’t be ruled by them.
Treat yourself to a hot bath or a walk in the fresh air. Do what you need to do to get emotional release. If yesterday wore you out, get refreshed spiritually and emotionally before starting a new day. Find some time alone with God, listen to teaching or music tapes, and refill your heart with an awareness of God’s presence.
From the book Starting Your Day Right
-----
Achieve the Best.
It is important to know where you want to go in this life. You have the potential to reach your goal, to have your best dreams come true, and get to where you want to go, only if you know what your goal is. Your expectation must have a clearly defined objective. You cannot expect the best if you think aimlessly.
No. 98 in a series of 100 Power Thoughts from The Power of Positive Thinking, the All-Time inspirational Best-Selling Book by Norman Vincent Peale.
-----
NACR Daily Meditation
Friday 24th of October 2008
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because
your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for
each other is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about
your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
2 Thessalonians 1:4
There is no magical formula for change. But there are some helpful principles.
First of all, change happens little by little. As this text puts it,
our capacity for trust ‘grows more and more’ and our ability to love and
to receive love ‘increases’. These changes, like all of the most important
changes in life, do not happen as a one-time event. An important change
may require us to make a decision at a certain moment, it also requires
a process that takes place over months and years.
Second, change is not a race. The change process can not be rushed. We
often want to ‘hurry it up’, but we can’t. Change that is real and long-lasting,
requires patience and perseverance. When we have been practicing our dysfunctions
for decades, we can expect that unlearning them will also take time.
Third, change requires that we practice the disciplines of honesty and
fellowship. There is no recovery unless we find ways to move out of denial
and isolation. What a wonderful gift it is to be able to share our struggles
and victories with people who will ‘always thank God for us’ and who will
encourage us, affirm us and hold us accountable.
Lord, I want my faith to grow.
I want my capacity for love to increase.
Little by little.
One day at a time.
That’s what I need.
Help me to move out of denial,
And out of isolation.
Help me to do my part to make change possible in my life.
Amen.
-----
Ultimate Good
Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
“It’s hard to understand how situations that create fear or discouragement could be as worthwhile as events that produce feelings of peace and delight,” said a friend. We agreed there are no simple explanations for life’s mixture of good and bad.
For the past fifteen years I’ve prayed: “God, show me who I am now and who I can become; who you created me to be.” In retrospect I see how God has answered this prayer. The painful and confusing times uncovered my need and propelled me to seek relief from self-destructive thoughts and actions. Yet, I still find it difficult to comprehend how my poor choices and human weaknesses may trigger positive change. Can both positive and negative situations work for ultimate good?
“All things work together for good to those who love God,” wrote Paul. But the Greek word “good” does not mean always pleasant and comfortable. “Good” means: beneficial, profitable in the long run; that which contributes to growth. We can move toward acceptance and trust that all things work collectively for our good.
Lord, I wish everything in my life was pleasant,
but I don’t want my distaste for the uncomfortable
to thwart my growth.
Please help me.
2008 Joan C. Webb
-----
Love Worth Finding - Oct. 24, 2008
October 24
Don't Try to Hurry the Harvest
“. . . the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.” James 5:7b
Sometimes the things that count the most seem to take the longest to get here.
Some giant sequoias in California are 300 feet tall. That’s the height of a 30 story building! Yet each one began with the smallest of seeds that began growing and maturing since before the time of Christ! That’s a long time.
You may say that you’re going to serve God. Then, you start to do something for Him, but when you don’t reap a harvest immediately, you get discouraged. Don’t try to hurry the harvest. In due season, you will reap.
Have you shared Christ with people and yet they haven’t been saved? Read Isaiah 55:11 and Romans 10:13 and receive His encouragement.
-----
Devotional For Dieters
October 24
Isaiah 41:10
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
The evening was the worst. About an hour before bedtime, Eleanor would begin to get cravings. The worst possible thing to do would be to eat right before bed. Sometimes her stomach would growl so much that she thought she would wake up the neighborhood. On those occasions, Eleanor asked God for a little quick relief and went straight to bed. Better that than to pig out and feel lousy the rest of the night and guilty all the following day! God can grant us blessed relief from the whinings of the stomach. He can take our mind off our stomachs and give us the strength to say no!
Today's thought: The waistline won't grow if I learn to say no!
-----
I Will Rejoice!
Day-by-Day
Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls--Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)
At times it seems that everything around you is collapsing. Endeavors you invested in may fail. People to whom you minister may disappoint you. The business or career you worked hard to build may crumble. These times, as difficult as they are, are opportunities to stop and examine what is truly important to you.
Habakkuk witnessed the collapse of most of what mattered to him. Yet through the loss, failure, and disappointment, he was able to distinguish between what was precious to him and what was transitory and empty. He came to the point where he could sincerely say that even if everything around him failed, he still would rejoice in God. If the fig tree bore no fruit; if the vine produced no grapes; if the flocks and herds stopped reproducing; he would still praise God. His praise might not come easily, as he watched everything fall short of his expectations, but he would praise God nonetheless. Habakkuk could not make fig trees produce figs. He could not control the productivity of the flocks and herds, but he could control his own response to God. He chose to praise the Lord.
Do things seem to be falling apart around you? You can still praise God. Your praise for Him does not depend on the success of your endeavors but on God’s nature and His love and faithfulness to you. Ask God to help you look past worldly concerns to understand the reasons you have to praise Him.
-----
Make God the top priority in your life
Begin every day with God, the Father, and enter alone in secret into His Presence and worship Him in spirit and truth. Amen.
Beginning each day with God is the best way to begin the day, there isn't any better way to begin each day. Amen.
Jesus said, " I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End." Amen.
Brethren, Jesus taught us to love God first, not last, when He said, " This is the first and greatest commandment." Amen.
Paul taught us, in all things let God be first and in all things He must have the preeminence. Amen.
Brethren, where does God rank in your list of priorities?
Is He at the top of the list, the middle of the list, the bottom of the list or is He not on the list at all?
Make God the top priority in your life. Amen.
©10/24/2001 Jim Welch
-----
-/\/\-----------------------------------------------------------------
\ / WHAT JESUS DID! -- http://www.heartlight.org/
--\/------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, October 24, 2008
I'll Go Ahead of You
"But {after I die}, I will rise from death. Then I will go to
Galilee. I will be there before you go there."
-- Mark 14:28 (ERV)
KEY THOUGHT:
Facing his own death and the desertion of his friends, Jesus' faith was
strong. He trusted that God would raise him from the dead and bring him
back to his disciples to finish his work of preparing them for the
future. Jesus' faith in the face of death and his victory over death in
the resurrection have reassured Christians for centuries that they
would again see those that they love in the Lord after death. May God
give us such faith.
TODAY'S PRAYER:
Eternal Father, please give me such faith! In Jesus' powerful name I
pray. Amen.
-----
MY FATHER’S STRONG ARMS
“He is the Father, and we are His children.” Alcoholics Anonymous, page 62
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John1:12
For what it's worth: My insane prejudice toward religion decided that the idea of being a child of God was a Church fable. Even if true, God had demonstrated He had no love for this child. I came to Alcoholics Anonymous with that attitude. After hundreds of AA meetings, hearing untold numbers of AA people share what God had done for them, the eyes of my dark soul opened slightly and I began to see all manner of insanity in my thinking about God. As this happened, I noticed how often God was mentioned as “Father” in AA literature, and that Dr. Bob referred to His Higher Power as his Heavenly Father. I could not help but notice that this new concept of God as my Father gave me warmth and comfort where there had been only a cold, dark, empty soul. Being a good drunk, of course, I wanted more of that good feeling. Fortunately, even my feeble attempt at prayer and meditation nourished the idea so much that I have come to believe that I am a child of God, one He loves dearly. He does for me something I do not recall my father ever doing. He opens up His loving arms to me anytime I need to run to Him and jump up in His lap just to be held in His strong arms.
God bless you!
Joe W.