Embedded Files
This page is dedicated to bringing encouragement and insight to God's people and reaching the lost for Christ.
I have a favorite Old Testament verse that many will probably find odd: "Man that is born of woman is of a few days full of trouble. Job 14:1 The reason it is my favorite is because it helps to explain why there is so much suffering in my life and in the world. It can be my favorite bible verse because of my favorite New Testament verse: " In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33 Be certain that troubles will continue. But we can be more certain that when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus, we are able to overcome the troubles and trials and tribulations of this life.
January February
Use the above links to access articles from previous months
Romans 12:10
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
February 17, 2023
The Asbury Revival
I received the link for a short video that portrayed young people crowding in an auditorium to pray and worship our God. What greatly intrigued me was the title of the video “Revival happening in Kentucky”. The reason this was so significant for me is because I am one of those believers who has been fervently praying for and encouraging others to pray that the church experiences a new revival, a new awakening.
My heart is so elated to see this obvious move of God among young people. I then decided to investigate what is being said about the “revival”.
I have read several articles reporting on the happenings in this small Christian College in Wilmore, Kentucky. Among them was an article covered by NBC from a writer named Jake Taylor. Taylor first describes the way the revival began saying “A Christian service at a college chapel in Kentucky has ballooned into a nonstop prayer and worship session that some are calling a "revival".
I also watched some more of the short videos from portions of the revival. It is so inspiring to hear and watch so many young people lifting their voices in praise and worship in such a spontaneous fashion.
Taylor notes in his article that President of the College Dr. Kevin Brown explained, “Following a morning service on Feb. 8, a multicultural gospel choir sang on stage. Some students stuck around afterward, and by evening more and more had trickled into the sanctuary creating something special.” Since then students and young adults from multiple colleges have arrived to be a part of this tremendously uplifting event.
“It has absolutely been social media that is the mechanism that people found out about this,” said Mark Whitworth, Asbury University’s vice president of communications.
The article reported that Tuesday the college had received 3,000 visitors to be part of the revival. Students and staff from 22 schools have visited so far, alongside groups from Hawaii to Massachusetts, university faculty said. “Travelers from Singapore and Canada are expected to arrive soon.”
Taylor makes a point of expressing a word of caution noting,” Historically, Christian revivals, like The Great Awakening, are marked by conversions and wildfire growth — a reason why — for now, at least — many are cautiously referring to Asbury as an outpouring, a gathering, or a nonstop worship meeting.”
What is interesting to me is my own initial response when I first watched the initial video that was sent to me. I was so thrilled and yet like Rhoda the servant girl who went to the gate and saw Peter outside was in such shock she could not believe her eyes and left him standing outside to tell everyone inside that it was him standing at the gate. I am continuing to pray not just for this beginning of revival but the spreading, expanding growth of the revival. My prayer is that this outpouring of the Holy Spirit will become another Great Awakening in the church. It was so very heartening to see so many young people from various other colleges and even high school students traveling to Kentucky to be a part of the revival.
Another article I read noted that many of the students who had attended headed back to their respective schools to try to stir the same revival spirit in their own schools and communities. This is what my heart’s desire is. Not just a local revival, not a regional revival, but a sweeping revival that moves in the hearts of God’s people to be more involved in sharing their faith. A stirring up of the church of God to fulfill the call of God to the church to go out into the world and preach the gospel, pray for the sick, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner with the good news of the grace and deliverance of the Lord.
Revival and the call for revival is not just an ordinary caring but it is a pursuing the will of God to change lives.
My prayer for revival is that it flows from the heart of God’s people that we will make a difference in our communities, in our homes, our workplaces.
If you are interested to read some of the articles for yourself here are a few:
https://www.wkyt.com/2023/02/13/days-long-spontaneous-revival-continues-kentucky-university/
Video Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6SHiFh61Qg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhp0W2wKDbk
From a heart of love and compassion share the gospel
From a heart of love and compassion share the gospel
Your Christian life may be the only Gospel they will know
Pray and put the results of your sharing in God's hands
Pray and put the results of your sharing in God's hands
As the wind blows we cannot see where it goes, so is the working of the Spirit of the Living God
Father, I thank you for the timelessness of your Word and your Promises. I pray you will use these words to encourage your children as they grow in their relationship with you. I pray that you will work in the heart of every person who does not know you as Lord to bring them to yourself, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
February 25, 2023 Learning Forgiveness
Have you ever wondered why forgiveness is so hard?
Anthony Lopez PhD wrote an article for Psychology Today, in which he notes, “Forgiveness is difficult in part because evolution has endowed us with the psychological motivation to avoid being exploited by others, and one of the easiest ways to prevent exploitation is to hit back or simply avoid the exploiter. Therefore, any discussion of forgiveness must begin by thinking carefully about the desire for retaliation.
While I do not believe that evolution has endowed us with the psychological motivation to avoid being exploited, I do agree that we have this innate desire to protect ourselves from the abuses of others whether real or imagined. Consider from the very beginning. Why was the serpent able to deceive Eve? She was convinced that God was holding out on her forbidding her to take of the one tree in the garden that appeared to be so appealing. She did not put her trust in the Word and Grace of God. She fell for the lie of Satan; “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Gen. 3:5 Rather than trust that God had her best interest in mind, she perceived that something was being kept from her and she was ready to take what she believed she had a right to. So, this whole idea of protecting ourselves from being taken advantage of or having things taken from us that would make us happy is not an evolution issue. It is a sin-nature issue. It is through Eve’s failure to trust in God that we today are able to see that there are consequences to not following the Word of God. We can see the impact of attempting to take matters into our own hands rather than trust in the Lord to do good, to be good, and true.
Now this does not mean that people will not do and say things to harm us. But we need to keep the Lord’s promise in mind under those circumstances: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” Rom. 12:19
As I read further in his article, Lopez discusses “Two Forms of Retaliation: Revenge vs. Negative Reciprocity” In this section Lopez once again attributes these two responses to evolution. But what I take from his explanation can also be seen in the light of a sin nature that needs to be addressed. Lopez writes, “Retaliation, including the violent kind, is perhaps nature’s most common conflict resolution mechanism”. He further makes the point that revenge is the most extreme form of retaliation. And another form of retaliation is called negative reciprocity. Revenge is fairly straightforward, an ‘eye for an eye’. We are all very familiar with the concept of revenge. You harm me I will do what I can to harm you. I was more intrigued with his discussion of negative reciprocity. Lopez stresses, “Negative reciprocity, therefore, represents a relatively proportional response or punishment meant to change the mind of the target, and therefore holds the promise of repairing a cooperative relationship rather than foreclosing it.” This then helps to describe the motivation for an unforgiving response to those who hurt, disappoint, discourage, or trouble us. In some way we feel that not forgiving them will punish them. But too often unforgiveness only widens the gap of understanding that could better result in the repair. Unforgiveness also harms us. We cannot maintain peace and the joy of the Spirit of God and hold unforgiveness.
Unforgiveness and retaliation rob us of peace. Unforgiveness is oppressive and disquieting to mind, soul and body. You are familiar with the queasiness of your stomach when something bad is about to happen. This is your body reacting to the troubling of your soul.
Unforgiveness ultimately does not punish the offender as much as it punishes the one offended. Typically, we are looking for that repair or reconciliation, but we do not know how to go about retrieving that repair or reconciliation. Our pride stiffens to the idea of letting someone get away with a wrong. Have you ever watched someone on the highway weave their way through traffic at an ungodly rate of speed and think to yourself, “where are the police when you need them? And yet if you were in an emergency and put aside caution to get where you needed to be you would be distressed even further when the police pull up behind you with their lights blaring. We want others to do the right thing and until they do we cannot have that harmony of spirit we long for. How strongly then do we want to do right?
Retaliation for a wrong or defensive posture of negative reciprocation do not bring about the results that we long for. Forgiveness does. Unless your ultimate aim is to inflict harm regardless of the consequence to your own peace, forgiveness is the better course for your peace and walk before your God.
What makes you think you have to forgive someone?
There is another basic question regarding forgiveness that you as an individual must answer: what makes you think you have to forgive someone? Is it because that is what you were taught growing up? Or do you have a genuine belief that forgiveness is a pre-requisite to attain to the status of a mature believer?
Until we view forgiveness as one of the characteristics that God is trying to develop in us, we will continue to struggle with the concept.
Jesus taught, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matt.6:15) This was one of the messages that Jesus shared with the multitudes during the Sermon On The Mount. It is important for believers in particular to be aware that even before you turned to Christ for salvation God had already executed his plan of redemption, sending Jesus to the cross to die for us. He does not wait till we repent; he pre-arranged the plan of salvation that included Jesus dying to pay the sin-debt that was brought upon all men by Adam.
I appreciate Psalm 103:10-12 “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” This tells me that God does not reward us according to how wonderful we are, neither does he deal with our sins according to what we deserve. He offers forgiveness to repair the damage done to our relationship with him due to our sin-nature.
As a non-believer you too need to be aware that the forgiveness of God is not just for believers or “good people”. Forgiveness is in place for all who are willing to come and receive it. God our heavenly Father only requires that we come to him and ask for his forgiveness and he through Christ Jesus grants our request. When I pray for people whom God places on my heart, I do not look at the kind of person they are. I remind myself in my prayers that God has forgiven me, God forgave Stephen the first martyr of the New Testament, God forgave Paul who persecuted the church and would later become the great voice of God to gentiles. If you do not know Stephen and Paul, you can read about them in the book of Acts in the New Testament of the Bible.
Read: Acts chapter 6, 7 and 8 for the narratives that introduce us to two men of faith that God greatly used. What is important for us to not miss in the narratives. Stephen was introduced as a man “full of God’s grace and power” Acts 6:8 NIV. But Stephen was no different from any other Jew of his time. He was not born full of faith. He learned and believed in Christ. He was convinced of the teachings of Jesus and that he himself was forgiven and should also be forgiving.
When Stephen was being stoned by people, he had tried so hard to convince that Jesus was the Messiah of God, he cried out to God the Father, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them."
Paul on the other hand is introduced to us in a completely different way. Before becoming a believer, he was introduced to us in the scriptures as Saul. His introduction was very different from that of Stephen because he “began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.” Act 8:3
And yet God had other plans for Saul, who later became Paul. God spoke to him from heaven and changed his life. If God offers the same forgiveness to Stephen and Paul and to me because he is not a respecter of persons, he will forgive any that come to him in sincerity of heart, acknowledging their need for forgiveness.
God then requires that we do the same. We are to be a forgiving people, full of grace and faith.
Does God’s offer of forgiveness include that individual?
The final element of forgiveness that I believe is important for all of us to keep in mind is does God’s offer of forgiveness include that individual that you are struggling to forgive? The short answer is Yes.
2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Just as no one could have predicted that the Apostle Paul would be the one that God would use to take the Gospel of Salvation and grace and forgiveness to the gentiles so too no one knows the heart of any individual; and who God himself will forgive and save.
Learn a lesson of forgiveness from Jonah. Jonah (Old Testament Prophet) sought to run from the call of God upon his life. He was called by God to go to Nineveh to preach repentance to the people there. But Jonah did not want the people of Nineveh to be forgiven. He decided to take a ship in the opposite direction. The history between Israel and Nineveh had been a devastating one for Israel. Jonah wanted God to punish them not forgive them. But God’s will was ultimately accomplished. Jonah wound up preaching repentance to the people of Nineveh. The King and the people repented and for a while were spared the great judgement of God.
Jonah knew the heart of God was to forgive. Do you know the heart of God is to forgive? Are you willing to trust the Word and Grace of God and allow him to have his way in your life? Choose to trust in the Lord to do good, to be good, and true.
Father, I thank you for the timelessness of your Word and your Promises. I pray you will use these words to encourage your children as they grow in their relationship with you. I pray that you will work in the heart of every person who does not know you as Lord to bring them to yourself, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
If you have questions about the message or about being saved or need further understanding of the plan of salvation that Christ Jesus offers please send your questions or requests through the Review Page of this website.
If you have been encouraged by this message please share the website with others. Use the review page to share your thoughts
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse