When You Doubt!

Do you ever wonder whether the Bible can be trusted? Scottish reformer john Knox confesses that he passed through a dark time when his soul was filled with "anger, wrath, and indignation, which it conceived against God, calling all His promises in doubt".

Do you sometimes wonder if god exists? The staunchest of Puritans Increase Mather,wrote in his diary that he was "greatly molested with temptations to atheism." are you ever so filled with questions that you feel at times like an unbeliever? Martin Luther sadly admitted, " For more than a week Christ was wholly lost. i was shaken by desperation and blasphemy against God.

Don't be surprised if you pass through similar struggles. as followers of Christ. we are in conflict with God;s enemy, the devil,the father of lies (John 8:44). we wrestle against him and "the rulers of darkness of this age"(Ephesians 6:12), Two of the pieces of armor God has provided for us when we are attacked by doubt are "truth" and "the shield of faith." They can "quench all the fiery darts of wicked one"(vv. 14-16). As we saturate our minds with God;s word, our faith with be strengthened. then we'll be able to stand when doubts assail us.

The devil is subtle, deceptive and sly;

He's clever and trick us to swallow his lie.

But his cunning methods we're sure to discern

By making God's warnings our daily concern.

God's Checks Never Bounce

The saying "You can never out give God" may be doubted by overanxious or tightfisted people. But Paul's letter to the Philippians believers fully support this sayings. Having just received their generous gifts to meet his needs in prison, he assured them that because of their generosity God wouldn't allow them to suffer undue need. He told them " My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus"(Phil.4:19). God's people have relied on the truth of those words ever since. To help us place our trust more confidently in this promise of God, someone has put Philippians 4:19 in terms we can call understand: " My God [the bank] shall supply [the check] all your need[the amount] according to His riches in glory [the capital] by Christ Jesus[the signature]". As with any valid check through our "signature of faith" and it will be paid in full. As long as we're willing to be content with much or little, as Paul was (v.12), we can dare to be generous people. Only then will we discover for ourselves that we can never out give our rich and generous God.

GOD'S RICHES FILL UP OUR SUPPLY,

WHATEVER WE MAY NEED,

SO WE CAN THEN BE GENEROUS

AND NOT CONTROLLED BY GREED.

A Faith Thats Work

No one can be saved by doing good works. on the other hand, the apostle James taught that faith without work is useless. To illustrate he pointed out that faith alone won't feed a hungry person.Only faith that takes a action will. How timely this message is!Right now much of our world is suffering a bellyache from not enough food, while countless others have a bellyache from too much.

Tragically, we who have enough to eat often "bellyache" about out food being too done, too though, too sweet, too cold, or too bland. Then we complain about that dirty dishes that our food creates. A poem from one of cookbooks turn such ingratitude on its head.Pauline Davis wrote:

Thank God for dirty dishes, they have a story to tell.

While others may be hungry we are eating very well.

With home, health, and happiness I shouldn't want to fuss.

By this great stack of evidence, God's been very good to us!

Oh! that we might be grateful, for gratitude is vital to a working faith. People without gratitude seldom care about having a working faith. But believers whoa are deeply thankful for God's blessing long to share those blessings with others.

Make sure your faith is useful, not useless. And don't neglect the needy, both spiritually and physically, around the world - and around the corner!

Good or Evil - The Choice Is YOURS

Every deliberate act, good or evil, is preceded by though. Sowing positive and virtuous thoughts reaps good fruitage. Conversely if seeds of selfish desire are allowed to germinate in the mind, a bumper crop of evil is likely to result. thus it could be said that man is as good or as evil as he chooses to be.Happily, the Bible indicates that goodness can be learned.(Isiah 1:16, 17). Love is the compelling force to do what is good, since "love does not work evil to one's neighbor. when we cultivate love for people, it is unthinkable for us to act in an evil way toward anyone.

Why is it worth the effort to "walk in the way of good people"? Because good will ultimately triumph over evil. The Bible states: " Evildoers themselves will be cut off.. Just a little while longer, and the wicked one will be no more....But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace." God will remove all traces of evil. What a glorious future awaits those who  work diligently to practice good!.

Even in Little Things

Not insisting on our personal preferences also brings blessings in small matters. On the first day of district convention, a pioneer couple arrived early and secured the exact seats they desired. As the program began, a large family with several children hurried in a crowded coliseum for adequate seating, the pioneer couple gave up their two seat. This made it possible for the entire family to sit  together . A few days after the convention, the pioneer received a thank you letter from the family. The letter explained how discouraged they were when they arrived at the convention late. That feeling soon changed to joy and gratitude because of the pioneer couple's kindness.


When we have the opportunity, let us willingly forgo our preference in half of others. By displaying love that" does not look for its own interest," we help to maintain peace within the congregation and with our neighbors. But the most important of all, we preserve our friendship to God.

The Limits

When God called Moses to serve he replied. "O my Lord, Ian not eloquent, neither before not since you have spoken to your servant: but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue "(Exodus 4:10)

The Lord said to him " Who has made man's mouth? or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind: Have not I, the Lord? (Exodus 11).

Our impairment, our disabilities, our handicaps are used by God for His own glory, His way of dealing with them may not be to remove then but to endow us with strength and use our limitations for good.

 If our weaknesses cause us to seek God and to rely on Him they actually help us instead of hinder us. In fact, they become the best thing that could haapen to us, because our growth in courage,power and happiness depends on out relationship with the Lord and how much we are relying on Him.

Three times the apostle Paul pleaded with the Lord to remove his impediment but the Lods answered " My Grace is sufficient" ( 2 Corinthians 112:9). Paul then gloried in his limitations for he realized that they did not limit him as he put it " When I am weak then I am strong.

QUICK FIXES

Some people pray only in a crisis. They have a"quick fix" mentality that sees God mainly as a problem solver. When merceful solutions come. He is courtiously thanked them more or less forgotten until the next cirisis.

Psalm 106 contains a serious warning againts desmissing God from our lives as if that were possible. Israel took the Lod is mercies for granted and God called that rebellion,. They developed malnourished sould because they chose to ignore him, whta a lesson for us!

Anticipate great things from God, but don't expect him to come at your beck and call. Instead, be at his beck and call, eager to fulfill His will.

THE WAY TO PRAISE HIM

The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem a few days before His death focused attention on Him as Lord. When Jesus sent Hid disciples to get the colt He was to ride, He instructed them to tell its owners,” The Lord has needed of it” (Luke 19:31). And when the crowds shouted their praise, they quoted Psalm 118:26, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.”(Luke 19:38)

Jesus is Lord. His name is “Above every name” (Philippians 2:9). As part of His title, the word Lord refers to his sovereignty. He is the King, and every believer in him is a member f His kingdom.

We acknowledge Jesus as Lord our lives by bowling to his authority as King. This means that we live in obedience to him. We can’t be like the man who claimed to be a Christian and yet chose to used illegal drugs and live in an immoral relationship. IF YOU ADORE CHRIST AS SAVIOR YOU CAN’T IGNORE CHRIST AS LORD.

LOSING SOMEONE

When a loved one dies and we go to the cemetery, we may join a long processional. We may sit or stand around the graveside and listen respectfully while the minister commits the body to the earth and reads Bible verses about the resurrection. Then the casket is lowered into the ground. W may return later to leave some flowers and stand with heads bowed in memory and respect. Our love one is dead, and we know we can never bring him/her back.

The Bible tells us that Jesus came to give us an abundant life here and now, as well as hereafter (John 10:10, 28). And we can gladly recognize that God ‘gave us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17).

Yet, we would be wise to balance our love for life with the truth reflected in the words of an old song: “ This world is not my home” and indeed it isn’t. we are aliens

We might wish with all our hearts that we could bring a loved one back, but if we were to give those commands nothing would happen. But Jesus had the ability, for He is “the resurrection and the life” (John 25).

God promises that one day “there shall be no more death, nor sorrows not crying”(Revelation 21:4). Until then, tears are God’s gift for the cleansing of the soul when we must cope with losing someone in our life.

THE WAY TO PRAISE HIM

The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem a few days before His death focused attention on Him as Lord. When Jesus sent Hid disciples to get the colt He was to ride, He instructed them to tell its owners,” The Lord has needed of it” (Luke 19:31). And when the crowds shouted their praise, they quoted Psalm 118:26, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.”(Luke 19:38)

Jesus is Lord. His name is “Above every name” (Philippians 2:9). As part of His title, the word Lord refers to his sovereignty. He is the King, and every believer in him is a member f His kingdom.

We acknowledge Jesus as Lord our lives by bowling to his authority as King. This means that we live in obedience to him. We can’t be like the man who claimed to be a Christian and yet chose to used illegal drugs and live in an immoral relationship. IF YOU ADORE CHRIST AS SAVIOR YOU CAN’T IGNORE CHRIST AS LORD.

THE UPSIDE OF SORROW

 Sorrow can be good for the soul. It can uncover hidden depths in our-selves and in God. Sorrow causes us too think earnestly about ourselves. It makes us ponder our motives, our intentions, and our interest. We get to know ourselves as never before. Sorrow also helps us to see God as we’ve never seen Him, Job said, out of his terrible grief, “ I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes sees You”(Job 42:5)

Jesus the perfect man is described as “a man of sorrows,” intimately acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). It is hard to fathom, but even the incarnate Son of God learned and grew through the heartaches He suffered (Hebrews 5:8). As we think about His sorrow and His concern for our sorrow, we gain a better appreciation for what God is trying to accomplish in us through the grief we bear.” Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better”. Those who don’t let sorrow do their works, who deny it, trivialize it, or try to explain it away, remain shallow and indifferent. They never understand themselves or others very well. In fact, I think that before God can use us very much, we must first learn to mourn.

JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION

Justification is the legal act which God declares righteous all who trust His Son for salvation. The only thing we can do to qualify for this status is to believe in Christ. To be justified us free and of God’s grace. We cannot earn it (Rom. 3:24).

Because of his life, death, and resurrection on our behalf, Christ our Savior can justify every wicked and ungodly person who comes to Him for grace (Rom. 4:5).

Sanctification is the process by which God continue to set apart and distinguish those who have believed in His Son. A first act of saving sanctification “set apart” a believer for God forever. That act is followed by a planned, progressive process of being set apart from sin to God.

If the ideas of justification and sanctification are confused, we might make the mistake of thinking that out salvation has never been secured. Some who lean toward a law rather than a grace view of God will never have the assurance of sins forgiven and of full acceptance and adoption into family of heaven. A right view of the distinction into the family of God, fully justified, and ready for the lifelong process of practical sanctification.

REAL CHRISTIANS WILL DISAPPOINT US

It is “also written” that real Christians can behave in ungodly ways (Jas. 3:13-16). The same James who wrote that “faith without works is dead” also described the dark side that remains in true Christians. He warned abut the danger of prejudice (2:1-7), careless conversation (3:1-12), and warned that people of God about the desires that cause believers not only to harm one another (4:1-4) but also to act like enemies of God. The apostle Paul confronted so much out-of-character behavior among those who claimed to be believers that she took comfort in this truth. “The Lord knows those who are His”, and Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2Timothy 2:19).

REAL CHRISTIANS

REAL CHRISTIANS WILL ACT IN A CHRISTLIKE WAY. Many sections of the Bible give us reason to expect new and consistent behavior for genuine Christians. James said simply, “Faith without works is dead” (Jas. 2:20). Paul said that anything were passed away and that all things were new (2 Cor. 5:17). The apostle John agreed that true children of God have a new nature that does not express itself in a sinful (1 Jn. 3:4-9). Throughout the whole of Scripture there is a consistent theme that God expects His children to live in a manner that shows their relation to Him.