Saturday, December 2, 2017

It All Belongs to God

It All Belongs to God by Dr. D. James Kennedy

“You are cursed with a curse, your whole nation, for you are robbing Me.” Malachi 3:9

Some people avoid church because they think it’s all about money. But it is really more about the concept of stewardship.
...
The first principle of stewardship is very simply stated by the psalmist: “The earth belongs to the Lord, and its fullness, the world, and those who dwell in it” (Psalm 24:1).

It all belongs to God. He created it, and He allows us to use it. We are mere stewards of these resources. He blesses us with good seasons and rain and all of the things that are needful.

However, He does say one thing: we are to return a tenth of that to Him, just as a test of our faith and obedience to Him.

This brings us to the second principle of stewardship, namely, that the tithe belongs to the Lord. It is His, He claims it, and therefore if we do not return it, we are, He says, robbing Him.

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings” (Malachi 3:8).

It is not ours. One writer says, “When we keep it, it is simply an act of theft. We may have put it in our bank account…we may have a new car that we have driven in to church, we may be watching football games on a new TV, but it is not ours.”

At minimum, give to the Lord ten percent of what you have, and watch how He blesses you for it.
Dear God, give us the strength today to set aside that which is Yours. Forgive us for any stinginess on our part. Please, make us generous, as You are generous.

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN GIVE FREELY AND GENEROUSLY.


Bay Leaves

  1. Another use for bay leaves besides seasoning your food...


  2.                                               


  3. The aroma from burning bay leaves can reduce stress and enable you to focus more fully on the task at hand.





Cell Phone Caution

  1. Avoid using cell phones too often.

  2. They may be convenient, but the risks they pose makes them unworthy their constant presence with you.
  3. This woman carried her phone in her bra for years. The coloured spots on the left show 3 different tumors she has. Please share and warn others. Imagine what it is doing to peoples brains.

Ephesians 6:10-12

  1. People are not your enemy...they may used of the enemy of your soul to undo you, but they are unwitting dupes in the hand of GOD'S ancient foe.

  2. If he can, he will rob you of the plan GOD has for your life; if he can, he will steal GOD'S gifts from you; if he can, he will relegate you to the ash heap of despair and destruction.

  3. BUT...
    ...
    If you will hold fast to JESUS and trust confidently in HIM, all the devices the enemy employs against you will fail and JESUS will be victorious in every area of your life.

  4. "Commit your way unto the LORD; trust confidently in HIM, and HE will bring to pass the perfect plan HE has for your life." Psalm 37:5
  5. " For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual h...osts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Ephesians 6:11-13 

  6. Today our battle is for the truth. The world is under siege by deceptive unscrupulous principles in a battle for domination. It starts by attacking your beliefs. Today I pray for the Word of God to be seated firmly in the minds and hearts of believers becoming a plumbline; giving us security in our thoughts and actions. As more and more division is stoked, I ask you to choose this day who you will serve and commit to knowing what Jesus taught us to do... How to pray, how to react and what to believe. 

  7. Test everything against His word. In Jesus Mighty Name I pray to be enlightened and safeguarded by my relationship with Him. Amen


Today in History

Today in History
1859
John Brown Hanged

On this day in 1859, in Charles Town, Virginia, militant abolitionist John Brown was executed on charges of treason, murder, and insurrection.

Brown, born in Connecticut in 1800, first became militant during the mid-1850s, when as a leader of the Free State forces in Kansas he fought pro-slavery settlers in the sharply divided U.S. territory. Achieving only moderate success in his fight against slavery on the Kansas frontier, and committing atrocities in the process, Brown settled on a more ambitious plan in 1859.

With a group of racially mixed followers, Brown set out to Harpers Ferry in present-day West Virginia, intending to seize the Federal arsenal of weapons and retreat to the Appalachian Mountains of Maryland and Virginia, where they would establish an abolitionist republic of liberated slaves and abolitionist whites.

Their republic hoped to form a guerrilla army to fight slaveholders and ignite slave insurrections, and its population would grow exponentially with the influx of liberated and fugitive slaves.

At Harpers Ferry on October 16, Brown’s well-trained unit was initially successful, capturing key points in the town, but Brown’s plans began to deteriorate after his raiders stopped a Baltimore-bound train and then allowed it to pass through.

News of the raid spread quickly, and militia companies from Maryland and Virginia arrived the next day, killing or capturing several raiders.

On October 18, U.S. Marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart, both of whom were destined to become famous Civil War generals, recaptured the arsenal, taking John Brown and several other raiders alive.

On November 2, Brown was sentenced to death by hanging.

On the day of his execution, 16 months before the outbreak of the Civil War, John Brown prophetically wrote, “The crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”



Words to Ponder

Words to Ponder
The BIBLE
"I trust in You, O Lord; You are my God. My times are in Your hand." Psalm 31:14, 15

Quotes of Presidents
" If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb we may be led like sheep to the slaughter." George Washington

Wise Words
"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be." Lao Tzu




Prayer Initiative

Prayer Initiative
Humility

Suggested Scriptural references ...

If My people, who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.  II Chronicles 7:14

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?  Micah 6:8

...But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.  Isaiah 66:2

...I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. Isaiah 57:15

Suggested prayers ...

As we humble ourselves in prayer before You, and as we seek You and turn from our wicked ways, we thank You for Your promise to hear us, to forgive our sins and heal America.  We stand on Your promises, Lord.  Please show us how to do our part. 

In the spirit of sincere humility, we open our hearts to You, Lord of all that is, all that was and all that ever will be.  This is Your world, Father.  You created it.  You own every square inch of it.  We are here but for a time.

We gratefully acknowledge that we live in a country founded on faith in You and Your word.  We also acknowledge how far we have strayed from You in this country.  In sincere humility, we plead for Your mercy, asking You to guide us back to You, our first love. 

We ask You to remove our fabrications of who you are, and ask You to reveal Your true self to us. Open the hearts of all Americans to the reality and beauty of Your presence, and draw us to seek You and Your purposes above all else.

Almighty God, we are lost without You.  We long to bring You honor in all our ways - in the ways we think, speak, act and react in private and in public.  May we resist abuses of Your name, Your will and Your ways.  Show us, Father, the ways in which we have fallen short of loving You.  

Father, we bow before You, aware of how far we have strayed from You in this nation.  Illumine my heart as to any way in which I have contributed to the decline.  Forgive our sins, Lord.  Forgive my sins, and heal our land.

~~~

“At this moment I have in my heart a prayer. As I have assumed my heavy duties, I humbly pray to Almighty God in the words of King Solomon: 'Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge this Thy so great a people?' I ask only to be a good and faithful servant of my Lord and my people.” President Harry Truman