TODAY'S QUOTE

“Quietness of soul, the fruit of truly

seeking God, is seldom found in

twentieth-century Christians.”

- Author unknown -

 

DAVID'S SECRET OF SUCCESS

 

"The one thing I ask of the LORD -

the thing I seek most - is to live

in the house of the LORD all the

days of my life, delighting in the

LORD'S perfections and 

meditating in his Temple."

(Psalms 27:4 NLT)

You and I both know that King David was

only human like the rest of us.  But what 

made him "a man after God's own heart"

and he still messed up so bad at times.

God knew before hand that David would

mess up badly.  Yet, in a sense David was

still one of God's favorites.

Over the years I have often thought of it

this way.  David had a "compass" in him

that always pointed toward God.  When 

David would fall and fail, yes the compass

spun in circles.  But when David settled

down, the compass quit spinning and went

back to pointing at God.

But I see three things in this one verse about

King David.

1.  He wanted "to live in the house of the Lord

all the days of" his life.  To me and in this 

different age that means that David wanted

to be in God's presence, or have God's 

presence ALL the time.

2. "delighting in the LORD'S perfection"..

Or, as some versions put it, "admiring"

the Lord all the time.  That to me is true

worship of the Lord

3."meditating in his Temple", or seeking

the Lord's advice or leading - on every

thing.

I want to live in God's presence too.

I want to give God the worship he deserves.

I want to seek God's leading in all I do.

TODAY'S PROMISE

"But you, O LORD, are a shield around

me; you are my glory, the one who holds

my head high.

I cried out to the LORD, and he answered

me from his holy mountain."

(Psalms 3:3,4 NLT)

 

CONTENT

 

"Not that I was ever in need, 

for I have learned how to be

content with whatever I have.

I know how to live on almost

nothing or with everything.  I

have learned the secret of living

in every situation, whether it

is with a full stomach or empty,

with plenty or little.  For I can do

everything through Christ, who

gives me strength."

(Philippians 4:11-13 NLT)

How much of life's stresses, strains, pains,

weariness and longings come because we

are not content simply with life's necessities.

We want more of something or other.

You like myself have read or heard numbers

of times over your life time of people who 

have everything.  The have fame and fortune,

they have it all - but they still commit suicide

because they are discontent about something.

[Meaning they lack a relationship God.]

"Yet true godliness with contentment

is itself great wealth.  After all, we

brought nothing with us when we

came into the world, and we can't

take anything with us when we leave

it.  So if we have enough food and 

clothing, let us be content."

(1 Timothy 6:6-8 NLT)

If I am going to seek for something or

long for something - let it be godliness.

Let me seek a closer relationship to 

Jesus Christ and let him worry about 

the rest.

"Don't love money; be satisfied

with what you have.  For God has said

'I will never fail you.

I will never abandon you.'"

(Hebrews 13:5 NLT)

TODAY'S QUOTE

All our heartaches and a great many of

our physical ills spring directly out of our

sins.  Pride, arrogance, resentfulness, evil

imaginings, malice, greed are the sources

of more human pain than all the diseases 

that ever afflicted mortal flesh.”

- A. W. Tozer -

 

THINK ONLY

"For I have told you often before,

and I say it again with tears in my

eyes, that there are many whose

conduct shows they are really 

enemies of the cross of Christ.

The are headed for destruction.

Their god is their appetite, they

brag about shameful things, and

they think only about this life

here on earth."

(Philippians 3:18,19 NLT)

This is scary.  The apostle Paul is writing to

the church at Philippi.  Yes, the Christians,

or at least professed Christians at Philippi.

And some of them are headed for destruction

because they THINK only about the things of

this world.

I see the same thing today.  People at church

who only talk about the things of this life,

even at church.  And if you follow them on

social media it is the same thing.  Professed

Christians, who you never hear a word 

 about spiritual things, only about the things

of this life.

We need to get our hearts and minds out 

of this life and it's problems and on to

the things of God.

"Since you have been raised to

new life with Christ, set your sights

on the realities of heaven, where

Christ sits in the place of honor

at God's right hand.  Think about

the things of heaven, not the things

of earth."

(Colossians 3:1,2 NLT)

 

TODAY'S PROMISE

"Instead, be kind to each other,

tenderhearted, forgiving one

another, just as God through

Christ has forgiven you."

(Ephesians 4:32 NLT)

 

TRAINING

“The members of the council were amazed 

when they saw the boldness of Peter and 

John, for they could see that they were

ordinary men with no special training in

the Scriptures.  They also recognized them

as men who had been with Jesus.”

(Acts 4:13 NLT)

I DON’T CARE HOW MUCH TRAINING YOU

HAVE HAD.  I WANT TO BE TAUGHT BY 

SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN WITH JESUS.

 

TODAY'S QUOTE

“Dying to self is the for to

godliness (Galatians 2:20)

And it is a choice we 

must make.”

- K.P. Yohannan -

 

JUST A THOUGHT.

"Jesus called a little child to him

and put the child among them.

Then he said, 'I tell you the truth,

unless you turn from your sins and

become like little children, you will

never get into the Kingdom of

Heaven.  So anyone who becomes

as humble as this little child is the

greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven."

(Matthew 18:2-4 NLT)

"At that time Jesus prayed this 

prayer: 'O Father, Lord of heaven

and earth, thank you for hiding

these things from those who think

themselves wise and clever, and for

revealing then to the childlike.

Yes, Father, it pleased you to do

it this way!"

(Matthew 11:25,26 NLT)

When was the last time you saw a child

flaunting a title:

Reverend, Doctor, Bishop, Pastor, etc?

 

TODAY'S PROMISE

"My child, never forget the 

things I have taught you.

Store my commands in your

heart.

If you do this, you will live 

many years, and your life

will be satisfying."

(Proverbs 3:1,2 NLT)

 

WORTHLESS

"Yes, everything else is worthless

when compared with the infinite

value of knowing Christ Jesus

my Lord."

(Philippians 3:8 NLT)

So, you finally accumulated some money

in the bank:

or some stocks and bonds,

or some trophies or ribbons for

your trophy case,

or some friends in high places,

or some skill,

or some knowledge

or some other satisfaction.

They are all worthless.

The only thing worth having is a 

"knowing" [Not about, but close

personal relationship.] with

JESUS CHRIST.

 

TODAY'S QUOTE

 

“If you keep filled with the Holy

Ghost and God’s love, you can

pray short and believe long.”

- Dr. F.E. Yoakum -

WHAT A CONTRAST TO TODAY

"A great wave of persecution began

that day, sweeping over the church

in Jerusalem; and all the believers

except the apostles were scattered

through the regions of Jedua and

Samaria."

(Acts 8:1 NLT)

"But the believers who were scattered

preached the Good News about Jesus

wherever they went."

(Acts 8:4 NLT)

"Meanwhile, the believers who had

been scattered during the persecution

after Stephen's death traveled as far

as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of 

Syria.  They preached the word of God,

but only to Jews."

(Acts 11:19 NLT)

"And because of my imprisonment,

most of the believers here have gained

confidence and boldly speak God's

message without fear.  

"Its true that some are preaching

out of jealousy and rivalry.  But 

others preach about Christ with 

pure motives."

(Philippians 1:14,15 NLT)

Did you catch that.  In the early church it

was "most of the believers" who did the

preaching.  Not just some professionals

who do the preaching like today in the

picture above.

Further, the preaching was not just

"sermons" like today.  True, there of

course were "sermons" preached.  But

the Greek word for preach is;

"kerusso ... to herald ... proclaim, publish."

 

The picture below could just as easily be

a picture of a New Testament believer

preaching, that is, simply telling about

Jesus.

And then we wonder why the church of

today is not as effective as the church

of the New Testament.  [Not to mention 

that today we work in the power of the 

flesh instead of the Power of the Holy

Spirit.]

 

TODAY'S PROMISE

"Don't worry about anything;

instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need, and

thank him for all he has done.

Then you will experience God's

peace, which exceeds anything

we can understand.  His peace 

will guard your hearts and minds

as you live in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 4:6,7 NLT)

 

AT THE NAME OF JESUS

"Therefore, God elevated him to 

the place of highest honor

and gave him the name above

all other names, 

that at the name of Jesus every

knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and

under the earth,

and every tongue declare that

Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father."

(Philippians 2: 9-11 NLT)

Perhaps my favorite Scriptural truth.

In a world that is attempting to disregard

Jesus Christ and go their own way.  One

day EVERYONE, past and present will

bow before him admitting that Jesus is 

Lord of all.

What a day that will be.

The signs of the times indicate that

it will be very soon.

 

TODAY'S QUOTE

A.W. Tozer said;

"So we have had monasticism,

scholasticism, institutionalism

and they have all been indicative 

of the same thing: absence of

spiritual power."

 

NEEDED WIDSOM

"If you need wisdom, ask our generous

God, and he will give it to you.  He will

not rebuke you for asking."

(James 1:5 NLT)

I know.  You always know the answer to

the problem at hand.  But I don't.  After

working on small engines on and off for 

over 70 years and being a retired auto

technician you would think that I could

handle almost any mechanical problem.

But not so.

The lawn mower above belongs to an 

acquaintance.  As you can see it is the 

combination of several different lawn

mowers.  And it has a lot of "Mickey

mousing", or back yard engineering on

it.

Really I enjoy that kind of thing.  I have

to dream up a way to fix things out of 

my scrap pile.  But, the thing is a John

Deere underneath.  One of the problems

was the need of a switch.  After ordering

the correct switch [according to the parts

list.] the factory part came in.  BUT,

nothing about it matched the connector,

the wires or almost anything else.

Without a wiring diagram and knowing the

circuitry of the new switch I was at a total

loss.  [It had four wires to go to five 

terminals in a completely different order.]

This of course called for a lot of prayer.

The Lord had to be in control because I just

guessed at the way to wire up the switch.

PRAYISE GOD.

It worked the very first try.