Real Leaders Expand Their Dreams

                                             When The Door Slams

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.                                                                                                 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 NIV

            Even as we become self-reliant and take responsibility for planting the seeds that will grow into the trees of our own success, we face an equal responsibility of planting shade trees for the benefit of others. One of God's great rules for the harvest of success is that the crops we sow and reap must be for the benefit of others, too--not crops grown and reaped at their expense. The harvest of seed of selfishness always results in personal and group famine, pestilence, and drought.

            Success does not mean standing victoriously over a fallen enemy. It is standing side by side with persons you have helped. Success is a matter of raising not only your own water level but the water level of all around you so that all the ships in the harbor can embark on prosperous voyages.

            You are truly successful when you can extend a strong hand to someone who is reaching, searching, or just trying to hang on. There is divine purpose in bringing out the best in one another. Selfish people have narrow thinking and live in a narrow world. Real leaders expand their dreams, goals, plans...and efforts...beyond themselves to say, "I live every moment, enjoying as much as I can, relating as much as I can, doing as much as I can--and giving as much as I can."  

            We live in a "me" world--facing the challenge of turning a "me" generation into a "we" generation. The elusive preoccupation we have in self-gratification and self-indulgence has too often been defined as personal success. Personal success, in my opinion, is only success if it also results in success for those with whom your life is intertwined. 

            Think about this: Giving changes us deep down, deep inside. It is more blessed to give than to receive. That is not just a truism stated by Jesus; it is a reality substantiated day in and day out by observing what happens to people when they give. 

Confession: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve." (Jeremiah 17:9-10 NIV)  

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.         

                                                Never Rest Ministries        

We All Need Someone Who Understands

                                              When The Door Slams  

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity Proverbs 17:17. One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother Proverbs 18:24 NIV.

             A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell. He painted a sign advertising the pups and set about nailing it to a post on the edge of his yard. As he was driving the last nail into the post, he felt a tug on his overalls. He looked down into the eyes of a little boy.

"Mister," he said, "I want to buy one of your puppies." 

            "Well," said the farmer, as he rubbed the sweat off the back of his neck, "these puppies come from fine parents and cost a good deal of money." The boy dropped his head for a moment. Then reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of change and held it up to the farmer. "I've got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?" 

            "Sure," said the farmer. And with that he let out a whistle. "Here, Dolly!" he called. Out from the doghouse and down the ramp ran Dolly followed by four little balls of fur. The little boy pressed his face against the chain link fence. His eyes danced with delight. 

            As the dogs made their way to the fence, the little boy noticed something else stirring inside the doghouse. Slowly another little ball appeared; this one noticeably smaller. Down the ramp it slid. Then in a somewhat awkward manner the little pup began hobbling toward the others, doing it best to catch up... "I want that one," the little boy said, pointing to the runt. 

            The farmer knelt down at the boy's side and said, "Son, you don't want that puppy. He will never be able to run and play with you like these other dogs would." 

            With that the little boy stepped back from the fence, reached down, and began rolling up one leg of his trousers. In doing so he revealed a steel brace running down both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specially made shoe. Looking back up at the farmer, he said, "You see sir, I don't run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands."  

            Think about this: My friend, the world is full of people who need someone who understands. That is the ministry to which God has called each of us.

Affirmation: Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so through Christ our comfort also overflows. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is experienced in your endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will share in the comfort 2 Corinthians 1:3-6 HCSB.        

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.

                                                    Never Rest Ministries  

                

               

                                      

Nothing Hurts Quite Like Betrayal

                                     When The Door Slams

Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch our your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."                            Job 1:8-11 NIV 

            Nothing hurt quite like betrayal. It can come in many forms: lies, a withdrawal of loyalty, a lack of defense, or disfavor. The effect is devastating. It is a universal feeling; everyone who has been betrayed suffers immensely. And the loss of confidence can take a great amount of time and effort to restore.

            Demon are a fallen angel. When Satan, who was the very highest angel, rebelled against God, he took a large number of the angles with him in rebellion. When their rebellion failed, they were cast out of haven. Those angels are now demons. In the same way that angels can reach the very heights of spirituality, demons have the ability to reach down into great depths of hatred, bitterness, and perversion. Demons seem to be interested in tormenting people, possessing them, and leading them away from God and His truth.

            Although lust, homosexuality, drunkenness, gluttony, and witchcraft are expressions of sinful flesh, these things can also be expressions of demonic activity in the lives of people. I am persuaded that many grossly perverted sexual practices, such as sadomasochism and pedophilia, have demonic roots...

            Satan's ultimate goal in spiritual warfare is to make us lose confidence in God, to feel betrayed by God, to make God seem disloyal and dishonest. If Satan tries to hurt us or disrupt our life, it is so we will call upon God and conclude He is not listening. Satan wants to destroy our faith in the goodness and power of God. That was Satan's strategy with Job. Satan told God that Job was only faithful to God because God protected him. If God would allow Satan to make Job suffer, He would see that Job would give up on God. But Satan was surprised. When God allowed Satan to hurt Job twice, Job never faltered in his faith. "Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity? In all this Job did not sin with his lips" (Job 2:10).

            Think about this: If you find yourself feeling betrayed by God, even losing confidence in Him, you will know Satan is a work. So, Stop the downward spiral and restore your faith. Trust in the LORD God goodness. 

Petition: Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God (3 John:11 NIV). 

Intercession: You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD (Leviticus 18:4-5 NIV). 

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.              

                                              Never Rest Ministries

         

      

Waiting, Why Is It Taking so Long

                                     When The Door Slams

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint Isaiah.             40:29-31 NKJV.   

            Waiting certainly plays an enormous role in the unfolding story of God's relationship to man. It is God's often repeated way of teaching us that His power is real and that He can answer our prayers without interference and manipulation from us. 

            But we have such trouble getting our will, our time schedules out of the way. Much of the time we act like a child who brings a broken toy to his father to be mended. The father gladly takes the toy and begins to work. Then after a while, childlike impatience takes over. Why is it taking so long? 

            The child stands by, getting his hands in the father's way, offering a lot of meaningless advice and some rather silly criticism. Finally in desperation, he snatches the toy from the father's hands and walks off with it, saying rather bitterly that he hadn't really thought that  his father could fix it anyway. Perhaps it isn't even "his will" to mend my toys.

            Think about this: On the other hand, whenever we trust the LORD enough to leave our "broken toy" with the Father, not only do we eventually get it back gloriously restored, but we are also handed something else, a spiritual plus. We find for ourselves what the saints and mystics affirm, that during the dark waiting period when self-effort had ceased, an astonishing spiritual growth take place in us. Afterwards we have qualities like more patience, more love for the LORD and those around us, more ability to hear the Lord God voice and greater willingness to obey.

Renewal: I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps (Psalm 40:1-2 NKJV).  

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.

                                            Never Rest Ministries                

Who Is A Christian

                                     When The Door Slams

Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? Luke 6:46 NIV. "If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them." John 14:15-21 NIV.    

            Who is a Christian? He can be described from many angles, but...we can cover everything by saying: a man or woman who acknowledges and lives under the word of God. One submits without reserve to the word of God written in "the Book of Truth" (Daniel 10:21 NIV), believing the teaching, trusting the promises, following the commands. His eyes are to the God of the Bible as his Father, and the Christ of the Bible as his Savior. 

            He will tell you that the word of God has both convinced him of sin and assured him of forgiveness. His conscience, like Martin Luther is captive to the word of God, and he aspires, like the Psalmist, to have his whole life brought into line with it. "I wish I were more loyal in obeying your commands." "With all my heart I try to obey You. Don't let me break your commands" (Psalm 119:5-10 NIV).          

            The Promises are before him as he prays, and the precepts are before him as he moves among men. He knows that in addition to the word of God spoken directly to him in the Scriptures, God's word has also gone forth to create, and control, and order things around him; but since the Scriptures tell him that all things work together for his good, the thought of God ordering his circumstances brings him only joy. He is an independent fellow, for he uses the word of God as a touchstone by which to test the various views that are put to him, and he will not touch anything which he is not sure that Scripture sanctions. 

            Think about this: The Lord does not say that hell-fire was prepared for human beings.  Although we all are sinners and guilty of eternal death, God nevertheless wanted to prevent this misery by giving His Son into death for us. And thereafter He revealed His good Word to us, so that we know what we are to do if we want to serve God and live to please Him. So our heavenly Father would very much like for us to be saved and, therefore, has ordained for us, not eternal fire but heaven and eternal life. But we go despising the forgiveness of sins through Christ as a insignificant treasure....

            We also take no delight in doing what God tells us to do in order to serve Him. Since, then, we degenerate to the very level of the devil and observe his will more than the Word of our Lord God, it must follow that we are obliged to share this judgment. We prepare this doom for ourselves. 

Renewal: Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him (Deuteronomy 8:6; 13:4 NIV).  

Related Bible Texts: 1 Samuel 15:22; Matthew 25:31-46; Mark 9:42-50; Luke 16:19-30;          1 John 2:5; Revelation 1:8-18 

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.

                                        Never Rest Ministries   

                               

A Second Death, Eternal Separation From God

                                     When The Door Slams

He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 NIV). Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him (Hebrews 9:27-28 NIV).   

            We do not know what lies ahead, just over the hill. Terrible things are happening in our world...and we are afraid. But deep beneath our fear of life lies, carefully hidden the real reason for our fear these days. It is something we try to ignore. In the sunshine of life and before the face of God. The truth is we are afraid of death. 

            It is easy to think of others having to keep this appointment with death, but it can be difficult to remember that we, too, must keep this same appointment. When we visit a dying family or friend, we are conscious of a certain spirit that gathers about such persons. Death is appointed for all, and the questions of its appearance is a matter of time. Other appointments in life we can neglect or break, but here is an appointment that no one can ignore, no one can break.

            We lack the freedom and release which comes from taking Jesus at His word, and fearing not "them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul..." (Matthew 10:28). If physical death were the only consequence of a life lived apart from God, we would not have so much to fear, but the Bible warns that there is the second death, which is the eternal separation from God. 

            The Christian should have no fear of death...But, on the contrary, faith should give him a touch of anticipation and a tingle of adventure as he looks forward to that experience that shall surely reward his hope and exceed his most glorious expectations.

            However, there is a bright side. As the Bible pronounces hell for the sinner, it also promises heaven for the saint. A saint has been described as a sinner who has been forgiven by Christ Jesus our Lord and Savor. The subject of heaven is much easier to accept than the subject of hell. And yet the Bible teaches both. 

            Think about this: It is only when we do know [Jesus] that we are not afraid, for there is nothing to fear. Only when one is no longer afraid to die is one no longer afraid at all. If you are afraid of death, then you are afraid of life. Only when you have something to die for, you have something to live for. And death when it comes, it will come to you as a welcome friend, sent to usher you into the glorious new life that awaits you just around the bend at the end of this old life.

Related Bible Texts: Psalm 89:48; Matthew 10:26-33;13:41-42; John 14:1-6; 1 Corinthians 15:42-55; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9; Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 21:1-4 

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.

                                        Never Rest Ministries

     

                      

Obedience

                                     When The Door Slams

Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and put them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well build. But the one hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who build a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.                                 Luke 6:46-49 NIV

Listen, my son, to your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck (Proverbs 1:8-9).               

            Obedience: "Train children how to live right, and when they are old, they will not change" (Proverbs 22:6) is as true today as when Solomon wrote it several thousand years ago. Running one's eye down the columns of any concordance on the words obey, obedience, and obedient gives some idea of the importance of these words in God's sight. "It is better to obey than to sacrifice. It is better to listen to God than to offer the fat of sheep," Samuel told Saul. In order to give respectful attention, which is the beginning of learning, you must be obedient.

            Think about this: Training must come before teaching. Before parents can train their children properly, they must first discipline themselves. An orderly home and orderly habits can be accomplished only by agreeing together on these things. This is impossible unless the children cooperate. And they don't cooperate unless they are disciplined from their earliest days. This discipline lays the groundwork for teaching. 

            Praying together for wisdom and standing together on all matters of discipline should be a rule for parents. Older children quickly notice when they can play one parent against the other: "If Mommy won't let me go, I'll ask Daddy. He won't know that Mommy has said no." Parents of young children (and older ones, too, of course) should read the book of Proverbs frequently and soak up the wisdom given by the Spirit of God.

            Listen: All knowledge comes from either observation of creation or revelation by the Creator. But observation will not answer questions about what the Creator is like, why He made creation, how He known, who we are, and what our purpose is; these questions can be answered only by revelation, which gives us God's big picture. We are thus called to listen to what He says, for that will give us the key to true knowledge and instruction.

            On the other hand, fools--not necessarily the unintelligent--are those who reject God's authority, despise His revelation, and refuse the discipline of His Knowledge (Proverbs 1:7).

My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one's whole body. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it (Proverbs 4:20-23 NIV).   

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness. 

                                        Never Rest Ministries