We Are In Constant Danger Of Having The Temptation To Exchange Something Very Precious

                                                 When The Door Slams

If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.                             (1 Corinthians 12:13 NLT)

            Oh, stupid Esau sells his birthright! "What good is my birthright to me now?"            (Genesis 25:29-34). The Point: We gain nothing by choosing the immediate over the significant. But what about me? What about you? What about us? "What is my mess of marital life?" How often do we ask this question of ourselves? It is important to verbalize the question. 

            We are in constant danger of having the temptation to exchange something very precious, a priceless reality-for indulging our sudden violent desires. The violent desire may be involved with greed for eating and drinking, passion for money or material things, letting loose our anger in action and abandoning reason, power giving in to depression without check, cursing God in despair or disappointment without even thinking of the trap which Satan set for Job and is setting for us, yielding to a sweeping sexual desire without waiting for the right framework. 

            The "mess of material things" that is dangerous to you and me in any temptation to give in to violent speech or action or choice of direction, based on the fulfillment of the "feel of power" the immediate moment which will demonstrate power to anyone watching...that we despise the promises of the Living God for our future.

            Time after time we have the opportunity for demonstrating the reality of our belief in the truth of truth, of our trust in God's promises. Time after time we can demonstrate by our responses and our choices that we really believe that no suffering for the present can be compared with the glories that are ahead of us in the plan of God.

            Think about this: God may allow His servant to succeed when He disciplined him to a point where he does not need to succeed to be happy. The man who is elated by success and is cast down by failure is still a carnal man. At best his fruit will have a worm in it.

            Affirmation: God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, "God is tempting me." God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death (James 1:12-15).  

            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 

                         

Resurrection Is The Story Of Man, From Its Beginning To It Present

                                                 When The Door Slams

As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world's interest in me has also died. It doesn't matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. May God's peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God. (Galatians 6:14-16 NLT)    

            Jesus laid both his teachings and himself on the cross. and answered the issue of "why?" History is nailed together! Literally it is! The story of man, from its beginning to its present, is so varied and disconnected that it had to be nailed together to give it continuity. Ever since the nail was driven, the human story reads more smoothly. Since then, there is a vital interrelatedness between its widely separated parts. Since then, we who choose to bear his cross know why we are on the planet. We have stared into the face of the Medusa and won. There is no "why" question for us. No wonder our lives are God's great Gloria! No wonder the apostle tells us, "Speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19). The cross answers emptiness with  peace in mind--harmony.

            Is it time to raise the cross in the middle of our lives? We must be careful before we answer. His cross will not coexist with our present way of life. We may not raise the cross yet ignore it in all our petty social involvements. Once we salute it momentarily we must serve it hourly for the rest of our lives. The cross is the supreme example of righteousness and can never belong to the person who will not show it supreme respect. 

            God has placed the cross in history. People have found contingency in that cross. Just as history's finest hour was the hour of Calvary, so our greatest moment will be that small quantum of time when we say with Paul, "The teaching about the cross is foolishness to those who are being lost, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). 

            Think about this: The crucifixion invites us to complete the cycle of human failure and   redemption. Each of us is created by God. Then, without exception, each of us moves away from the righteousness in which we were created. Then comes his invitation, issued by his cross, to return by way of Christ's sacrifice to fellowship with our Father and savor everlasting life.

            Affirmation: You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross (Colossians 2:13-15). 

            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                   

Ignorant And Foolish People Are Watching Every Move You Make

                                                 When The Door Slam

If you explain these things to the brothers and sister, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ Jesus, one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teaching you have followed. Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives tales. Instead, Train yourself to be godly.             (1 Timothy 4:6-7 NLT)   

            It is important that you live your Christian faith sincerely, not just put on a show when you think people are watching. However, like it or not, people are watching you all the time and constantly judging whether you are living what you preach. This includes fellow believers and your own children. That's why Paul said, "Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity" (1Timothy 4:12). 

            Unbelievers are watching too-both the curious who are attracted to the Gospel and the antagonistic who are looking for an excuse to criticize the faith. Peter refers to them, saying, "It is God's will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you" (1 Peter 2:15). 

            Think about this: People are constantly watching true Christians. It can't be avoided. In fact, it's God's plan-one of His chief ways of letting the world see what the Gospel can do for a true believer. Jesus said that believers were the light of the world, a city set on a hilltop (raised up like a stage), where everyone could see them and think about them. 

            And people are especially watching you when you go through hardship, whether they are misfortunes, or illnesses, or persecution. Paul said, "God has displayed us...for we have been made a spectacle to the world" (1 Corinthians 4:9 NKJV). How you act when you are suffering communicates more effectively than a testimony.

            Affirmation: But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For "Who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But have the mind of Christ.                                                             (1 Corinthians 2:14-16 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               

Out Of The Darkness, A Bright Light Shone

                                                 When The Door Slams

Why is life given to a man whose past is hidden, whom God has hedged in? I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water. For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. I cannot relax or be still; I have no rest, for trouble comes.                                                     (Job 3:23-26 HCSB)  

            No one is exempt from tragedy or disappointment--God himself was not exempt. Jesus offered no immunity, no way out of the unfairness, but rather a way through it to the other side. Just as Good Friday demolished the instinctive belief that life is supposed to be fair, Resurrection Sunday followed with its startling clue to the riddle of the universe. Out of the darkness, a bright light shone. 

            The primal desire for fairness dies hard, and it should. Who among us does not sometimes yearn for more justice in this world here and now? Secretly, I yearn for a world "fault proof" against disappointment, a world where my Blogs page will always find acceptance and my body does not grow old and weak.....But if I stake my faith on such a fault-proof earth, my faith will let me down. Even the greatest of miracles do not resolve the problems of this earth: all people who find physical healing eventually die. 

            Think about this: We need more than miracles. We need a new heaven and a new earth, and until we have those, unfairness will not disappear.....The Cross of Christ may have overcome evil, but it did not overcome unfairness. For that, Resurrection is required. Someday, God will restore all physical healings to its proper place under His reign. Until then, it is a good thing to remember that we live out our day on Resurrection Saturday.                                     (Read: Mark 15:27-47; 16:1-20)

           Confession: When it was noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Mark 15:33-34).                          

            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 Minister

It Takes Great Faith To Believe That God Is With You

                                                 When The Door Slams

Because of my adversaries, show me Your way, LORD, and lead me on a level path. Do not give me over to the will of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing violence. I am certain that I will see the LORD's goodness in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and courageous. Wait for the LORD.              (Psalm 27:11-14 HCSB)  

            There will be points in your life when you are utterly incapable of affecting the outcome of a situation you find yourself in. At times like this, you have no choice but to wait for the Lord and trust Him to act. Often, it then takes great faith to believe that God is with you, because He might seem very distant or He has turned away from you. This is why Isaiah said, "I will wait on the LORD, who hides His face from the house of Jacob; and I will hope in Him" (Isaiah 8:17 NKJV). 

            If you have sinned and disobeyed the Lord, chances are good that He actually has turned His face from you and is not listening to your prayers (Isaiah 59:1-2). But if you have sincerely repented, then there are no longer any issues between you, and you simply have to believe that God loves you and will act on your behalf.

            Think about this: This takes faith. You might go through a time of testing just like Job, who was convinced for several months that God was against him. During such lonely sojourns, you must trust God's Word, not your feelings, and believe that "the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him" (Psalm 103:17 KJV). 

            This can be a difficult time, and what will sustain you is the knowledge that God is good and He will eventually come through for you and resolve the situation.

            Confession: I had heard rumors about You, but now my eyes have seen You. Therefore I take back my words and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6 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              

Wherever The Light Is, The darkness Tries To Put It Out

                                                 When The Door Slams

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man' I put aside childish things. For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. Now three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.                                                                                                                      (1 Corinthian 13:11-13 HCSB)

            What accounts for all the anger and horror in the world around us? Where are the angels? Can they come if we refuse to believe in them? What accounts for the darkness in human hearts as the world becomes more and more secular? Why are people turning to drugs for comfort rather than to the Light of Love? I don't know the answers to these questions. But I do know that wherever the light is, the darkness tries to snuff it out. 

            Perhaps all the terrible things that are happening are, indeed, a sign that the Spirit of Love is MIA, that more and more of us are turning to this ferocious power who pushes us into doing what we don't think we can do, who gives us courage we never dreamed we had. I take the devil and his crafty plans seriously indeed. One thing which we can count on the devil to do is to take the original good which God created, and try to make something ugly out of it. Sometimes he succeeds--though that does not make the original good any less good. There are people today who play with the powers of love, who take them trivially, who seek easy answers. 

            Think about this: There are no easy answers, but I think we need to be aware that if we deny the world beyond the world of technology and provable fact, we do to our own pitfall. "The miracles of Jesus were the ordinary works of His Father, wrought small and swift that we might take them in." 

            Affirmation: Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered                                           (Romans 8:35-36). 

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 

Our Faith Or Unbelief Is Determined By Our Understanding

                                                When The Door Slams

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrew 4:14-16 NIV)      

            Our faith or unbelief is determined by what we understand. Few of us realize the effect of our spoken word on our own hearts or on our adversary. The adversary hears us when we profess failure, sickness, and the lack of finances, apparently he doesn't forget; and we unconsciously go down to the level of our own understanding. No one ever rises above it. If you confess sickness, it develops sickness in your system. If you confess doubt, the doubts become stronger. If you confess the lack of finances, it stops the money from coming in. You say, "I can't understand this." No. Because most of us live in a paradox realm and spiritual things are very indistinct.

            Hebrews 4:14 must become a constant reality: "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our  confession "(NKJV). Our confession is that the Word cannot be broken, that what the Father says is true. When we doubt the Father, we are doubting His Word. When we doubt His Word, it is because we believe something else that is contrary to that Word. Our confidence may be in the arm of the flesh; it may be in medicine; it may be in institutions; but whatever our confidence is in, if it contradicts the Word, it destroys our faith life. It destroys our prayers. It brings us again into bondage.

            Think about this: Every person who walks by faith will have testing's. They do not come from the Father; they come from the Adversary. He is refusing to allow you to escape him. You become dangerous to the Adversary when you become strong enough to resist him--when you have learned to trust in the ability of the Father to meet your every need. When that becomes a reality in your consciousness, the Adversary is defeated. 

            But as long as he can confuse the issue and keep you in a state of flux, you are at a disadvantage. May your confidence in the Word be strengthened to give you wisdom to know that no Word from God is void of power or can go by default. There is no power in all the universe to void one statement of fact in His Word. Your confidence is in the unbroken, living Word, and as you hold fast to your faith in the face of every assault of the enemy.

            Affirmation: The LORD said to me, "You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled." The word of the LORD came to me again: "What do you see?" (Jeremiah 1:12-13 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