Weekly words of encouragement

His Love Is Infinite – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

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For great is your love, higher than the heavens;your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Psalms 108:4 (NIV) How much does God love you? Does he love you like a father who is proud of his wonderful child? Does he love you like a mother who cherishes every sign of affection from her child? Does he love you like a lover yearns to unite their heart with the beloved? God’s love is higher than all these. It includes all these types of love and more. His love is higher than the heavens, in other words, it is beyond anything we know. His love is bigger than we can imagine. It is more passionate than any human passion. It is wiser and more benevolent than any gifts that a human lover could give. We cannot even imagine how great his love is no matter how long we tried. No words, including these, Continue Reading →

suffering

Do You Want To Be One With Christ?

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Suffering makes us one with Christ. Since Jesus is our model suffering is not something that we avoid, instead, we choose to take up our cross. We embrace it because it is the path to oneness with Christ and a fruitful life. Oneness with Christ includes oneness with his life, and his life included suffering; thus, we cannot be one with him unless we suffer. This includes the psychological and spiritual suffering of dying to self. Paul said: “I want to know Christ–yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Phil. 3:10, NIV). Notice that Paul wanted the good and the “bad” because both were part of knowing Christ better. He loved Christ and knew that in him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3, NIV) and that he was the source of Paul’s restoration Continue Reading →

Weekly words of encouragement

Believing In God’s Goodness – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

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Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,for his steadfast love endures forever! Psalms 107:1 (ESV) Consider how we are sometimes afraid of surrendering things to the Lord, or afraid of obeying him in a difficult situation. Why are we afraid or resistant? Usually, a part of us thinks that this will cause us pain. Going deeper, we may think that the benefits will not outweigh the pain. If we really believed that what God was doing was good, and not harmful, then wouldn’t we let go of our fear? Would we have any fear at all? Isn’t it always good to surrender and obey? Is there any question that the good will outweigh the temporary pain? Yet, it can be very difficult to get our hearts to fully embrace God’s goodness. We may believe the doctrine of the goodness of God, but our hearts still resist surrendering Continue Reading →

wealth

Does God Promise Us Prosperity?

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Sadly, many ministers all around the world today teach that God promises prosperity to all faithful followers and that believers should freely seek, and expect to acquire, wealth beyond their needs. This teaching appeals to the “lust of the eyes” (1 John 2:16), in other words, the materialism of the old self. The teachers often add that our tithing will lead God to bless us financially. We refer to these teachings as the “prosperity gospel”. The prosperity gospel has never been considered orthodox in Christian history; it would have been summarily rejected by all the great Christian teachers of the past. This includes the pioneers of Pentecostalism. Much of prosperity teaching relies on the Old Testament, which as we saw in our previous post on wealth is not legitimate because the New Testament teaches a new approach to wealth. Do we want to live under the old covenant? Do we Continue Reading →

Weekly words of encouragement

Yahweh Rules Over All

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The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. (Psalms 103:19, NIV) It is important for our peace that we trust that Yahweh rules over all. In the Old Testament God’s heavenly kingdom had not come to earth, so his rule was not as complete as with the New Covenant. And his rule in the inauguration phase that Jesus brought is not as complete in the fulfillment phase after Jesus returns. So in this “in between” time, between the comings of Christ, God uses all the bad things in life to produce good things. This means that no matter what happens in your life, God rules over your circumstances by using them to make you more like Christ. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn how God will bring good out of bad, like he brought good out of the crucifixion of Christ. So remember Continue Reading →