Monday, October 29, 2012

CHOOSING WHOM TO SERVE

Today's promise: God comforts those who are persecuted
Choosing whom to serve
"As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord."
Joshua 24:15 NLT

A momentous document
"The date was November 11, 1620, and the place was the Mayflower, anchored off the coast of Cape Cod. One hundred and two passengers, including 34 children had spent seven weeks crossing the ocean from England. Among them were 27 adults and 14 children who were Pilgrims, separatists who had fled England for Holland, yet wished to retain their English heritage. They made arrangements with the Virginia Company to settle just south of the Hudson River within the northernmost boundary of the Virginia Charter. However, fierce winds blew them off course to the north — to the shores of Cape Cod.

They realized they would be on their own since they had no agreement with the New England Company. On board the ship some of the non-Pilgrim bonded servants and those hired by contract greeted the decision to settle in Cape Cod as an opportunity for rebellion. The Pilgrim leadership saw that they must act quickly to prevent a mutiny.

The result came to be known as the Mayflower Compact, the first time in recorded history in which free men covenanted together to form a civil government with the authority to enact laws that the people promised to obey.

Before leaving the Netherlands, the Pilgrims had knelt on the dock to ask God's blessing on their voyage. After the first winter on Cape Cod, 47 people died, leaving only three families intact. These humble Christian men and women were to be the seeds of what would become the United States of America."

Adapted from
The One Year® Book of Christian History by E. Michael and Sharon Rusten (Tyndale) pp 632-33
Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

RESPONDING TO THOSE WHO ATTACK YOU

Today's promise: God comforts those who are persecuted
Responding to those who attack you
"Lord, have mercy on me. See how I suffer at the hands of those who hate me. Snatch me back from the jaws of death.

Save me, so I can praise you publicly at Jerusalem's gates, so I can rejoice that you have rescued me…

Arise, O Lord! Do not let mere mortals defy you! Let the nations be judged in your presence.
Make them tremble in fear, O Lord. Let them know they are merely human."
Psalm 9:13-14, 19-20 NLT

Asking God to relieve our suffering
Life is difficult enough without people seeking to attack us in one way or another. But as David quickly learned when he became king, the more responsibility and power we are given, the more enemies oppose us.

When we are being attacked by our enemies, we instinctively fight back. But as this prayer shows, our first response to opposition should be to bring the situation to God in prayer. Instead of plotting how he could destroy his enemies, David identified how his current predicament could bring glory and honor to God.

What difficult and troublesome situations have you gone through? Submit those situations to God, and ask him to save you so that you may rejoice in him.

A prayer for today…

Dear Lord, you know how I am suffering. Please save me so I can rejoice in you…

From
The One Year® Book of Bible Prayers edited by Bruce Barton(Tyndale) entry for November 19 "
Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

READ:
Matthew 9:27-38

[Jesus] was moved with
compassion for them.
 –Matthew 9:36

Elizabeth’s story was moving, to say the least.  Following a terribly humiliating experience in Massachusetts, she caught a bus to New Jersey to escape her embarrassment.  Weeping uncontrollably, she hardly noticed that the bus had made a stop along the way.  A passenger sitting behind her, a total stranger, began making his way off the bus when he suddenly stopped, turned, and walked back to Elizabeth.  He saw her tears and handed her his Bible, saying that he thought she might need it.  He was right.  But not only did she need the Bible, she needed the Christ it speaks of.  Elizabeth received Him as a result of this simple act of compassion by a stranger who gave a gift.

Jesus is our example of compassion.  In Matthew 9, we read, “When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (v.36).  Not only did our Lord notice the pain and hurt of broken people, He responded to it by challenging His followers to pray for the Father to send out workers to respond to the hurts and needs of this dying world (v.38).

As we follow Christ’s example, a heart of compassion for shepherdless people can compel us to make a difference in the lives of others. –Bill Crowder

Father open my eyes to see the hurts and
struggles of others.  Then open my heart to respond
to them, so that through me they may see You
and Your love.  Amen
*******************************************
A world in despair needs Christians who care.
INSIGHT
The healing of the blind, the deaf, and the deliverance of the demon-possessed were miracles Jesus performed as signs to prove His identity as the promised Messiah (see Isaiah 35:5-6; 42:6-7; Luke 4:18; 7:20; John 5:36; 10:25).

Have a blessed day and week ahead.
God Our Creator’s Love Always
Unity & Peace

Saturday, October 27, 2012

SPIRITUAL GIFTS SYMPOSIUM

SPIRITUAL GIFTS SYMPOSIUM
Saturday, October 27, 2012
2:00 pm
Hosted by
New York School of the Bible

William Thompson – Cessationist View
The gifts of God has ceased.
The speaking of tongues have continued (?).  Are they in accord with the Bible?
The Apostle Paul in Corinth had the speaking of tongue.  This happened early in church history.  By the end of Paul’s ministry this has ceased.

If Paul could heal people why didn’t he heal himself.  The purpose of healing was a sign.  During the Apostlelistic era certain gifts decreased. 

You had mystics that did certain things but their doctrinal integrity was questioned.

Paul speaking in tongues were for a sign for the Jewish people. They were told they had fallen out of favor with God.  They were told the Gentiles will be spreading the message and the gift of tongues would no longer be needed.

The Romans were speaking in tongues but their doctrine wasn’t proven in the Bible.
The modern tongue movement was late in the 19th and early 20th century.
People claim to speak in tongues but they were weak in doctrine.
The gift of tongues has ceased in between this time.

It is said that the Assembly of God in Christ’s doctrine states that you are born again and you have to seek the Holy Spirit after that.
1 Corinthians 1:15 – We are all baptized in one body.
Baptism of the Holy Spirit is proven by speaking in tongue is not a biblical fact. 

It is also said that they taught a believer can lose his salvation.  This teaching is also not biblical because we are saved by God’s grace.

It is said that they claim there is physical healing but the person will soon die after.  Paul healed others as a sign but the people also died afterward.

Speaking in tongue was not a guarantee of purity.

Why do people speak in tongues today?
Jesus told Thomas a new era was coming.  People will believe on testimonies not signs.  We are perfect and complete by the teaching of the Bible.  The Bible is sufficient.  We are promised in the Bible.  The Bible said that by believing in Him we have eternal life.



Daniel Mann – Cautious View
Daniel don’t see the evidence that the supernatural gifts have ceased.
The church has rejected discernment of the gifts but we have to look at them.
Our minds have a place in the spiritual gifts, testing of the signs.
We are to stop using our minds because this impedes the spirit.
Jesus said, “My testimony is not evident if He testifies against Himself”. 
Jesus said we need to seek more than one testimony.
We are to love God and hold fast to what He has already revealed.  We don’t want to fail the test.  We are not to believe something because it comes to past.  If it is not biblical it’s false.  The prophets in the Bible days had to be right all the time.

Daniel also states that some churches speak in God’s Name and God didn't say anything.
Speaking wrongly about God is wrong.
In Jeremiah 23:9-32 you have Lying Prophet and in verses 33-40 you have False Oracles and False Prophets.  These prophets didn’t come from God.

Prosperity and Name It Claim It Preachers speak wrongly about God.  It is said these preachers say we have the same power as God, we can speak and it comes to pass.  This is not true.  Only God can speak and things come to pass.

God wants us to have truth in our most being.  God owes us nothing.  We are unworthy servants. 

The Bible never gives us permission to be fast and loose.  We are to say, “If it is the Lord’s will”.  Boasting is evil.  Truth is God’s truth.

It is said that some churches believe, if you don’t have the manifestation of the spirit you are not spiritually alive.
These people believe the church is messy but the Apostle Paul believe the church is in order and peaceful.

People place too much interest on signs.  Miracles can sometimes be counter productive.

We are to believe in God for all things because He gives us what we need.
God works differently at different times.  We cannot handle all of God’s blessings at once.
The Holy Spirit compensate in our failure to pray correctly.



Lawrence Taylor – Continuationist View
Certain teachings just don’t hold up to Scripture.  WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
You have to read the Bible and let the Holy Spirit enlighten you.

Gifts – Charisma -  found 17 times in the New Testament and 16 times was used by the Apostle Paul.  This word is found in the gospel of Luke.

Jesus never says He’s healing to authenticate His message.  Jesus heals because He wants to heal.  Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The Cessationist’s view don’t have Scripture to support him.  Saying it states in church history that the gifts are no longer is not proven by Scripture.

Verses 8-13  is talking about the duration of love.  Love will endure.
Verse 12  says that spiritual gifts did not bring about perfection.  We will be perfect when Jesus returns.

Romans 12 talks about the body as an anology.  Cessationists believes an amputation has to take place.

Who determines what spiritual gifts have ceased?
The Cessationists has determined that.  The ones that are no longer in operation according to them are the ones they don’t like.  Continuationists believe what the Scripture says.

1 Corinthians 12 – Prophets [Spiritual Gifts]
1 Corinthians 14 – Gifts of Prophecy and Tongues

What I’ve gotten through this Spiritual Gifts Symposium is that the Word of God is true and I believe in the Scriptures.  The Spiritual Gifts will cease when perfection/Christ comes found in verse 10 of 1 Corinthian 13:8-10
8 – Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  9 – For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 – but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

Speaking of tongues and prophecies 1 Corinthians 14:2-4 helped me to see when you speak in tongues and there is no interpretation then it’s between you and God it’s not for man but prophecy deals with speaking to men for strength, encouragement and comfort.
2 – Fore anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God.  Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with is spirit.
3 – But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.
4 – He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.


BEARING UP TO PERSECUTION

Today's promise: God comforts those who are persecuted

Bearing up to persecution

But I know the Lord will surely help those they persecute; he will maintain the rights of the poor.
Psalm 140:12 NLT

Praising God in suffering
Young Charles Simeon had reason to question Psalm 140:12. A recent graduate of Cambridge, he had been installed as rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in that college town, much to the dismay of the liberal-thinking parishioners, who couldn't abide the evangelical preaching of this Bible-loving cleric. When the old-time members locked their pew doors to keep out other worshippers, Simeon put seats in the aisles. Then members came early and threw out the aisle seats.

Nicknamed Sims, Simeon was hooted at when he walked in the town. "I was the object of much contempt and derision," he admits. One day he took a walk, asking God to guide him to "some text which should sustain me." Opening his New Testament, he read about Simon of Cyrene, who bore the cross of Jesus. Simeon found this to be great encouragement indeed, partly because he thought they might have given Simon of Cyrene the nickname of Sims, too! "To have the cross laid upon me that I might bear it after Jesus. What a privilege! Now I would leap and sing joy, as one whom Jesus was honoring with a participation in his sufferings."

If you're facing times of persecution and feel that you're misunderstood, learn a lesson from Sims and start praising God.


From The One Year® Book of Psalms with devotionals by William J. Petersen and Randy Petersen (Tyndale) entry for November 21

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

TITANCI II

TITANIC II

READ:
Jeremiah 17:5-10

Cursed is the man who trust
in man and makes flesh his
strength, whose heart departs
from the LORD. -Jeremiah 17:5

Mark Wilkinson purchased a 16-foot boat for fishing and recreation.  Apparently he was not superstitious, because he christened his boat Titanic II after the ill-fated luxury ship that hit an iceberg and sank in 1912.  Titanic II's maiden voyage out of a harbor in Dorset, England, went well.  But when Wilkinson headed back, the boat started taking on water.  Soon he was clinging to a rail waiting for rescue.  Wilkinson reportedly said, "It's all a bit embarrassing, and I got pretty fed up with people asking me if I had hit an iceberg."  This was followed by an eyewitness who said, "It wasn't a very big boat-I think an ice cube would have sunk it!"

The story of Titanic II is quite ironic.  But it also makes me think of the original Titanic and the danger of misplaced trust.  The builders of that ocean liner were absolutely confident that their ship was unsinkable.  But how wrong they were!  Jeremiah reminds us:  "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD" (Jeremiah 17:5).

All of us are tempted to seek security in people or things.  How often we need to be reminded to forsake these false confidences and turn back to God.  Are you putting your trust in something other than Him? -Dennis Fisher

When we put our trust in You, Lord,
We'll be like a tree that's growing
Beside waters that are flowing,
Bearing fruit and standing strong. -Sper
*********************************
Those who put their trust in God
will never be disappointed.

INSIGHT
In the thought of ancient Israel, the heart is the very basis of character, the center from which proceeds our thoughts, choices, emotions, and actions (Proverbs 4:23; 23:7).  Because of our fall into sin, the Bible does not have much good to say about sinful man's heart (see Genesis 6:5; Job 15:14-16; Psalm 51:3; 53:1-3; Ecclesiastes 9:3; Mark 7:21-22).  "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9) is the consistent verdict of Scripture.  That is why we need Christ to give us a new heart and make us a new creation (2 (Corinthians 5:17).

Have a blessed day.
God Our Creator's Love Always
Unity & Peace


Friday, October 26, 2012

THE DEITY OF CHRIST AND WHY THIS MATTERS

By His Mercies Alone, Daniel
For more great blogs as this one go to: www.Mannsword.blogspot.com

The Deity of Christ and why this Matters

In the official Watchtower publication, Should You Believe in the Trinity, Jehovah’s Witnesses proclaim that:

·        Jesus had an existence in heaven before coming to the earth…the Bible plainly states that in his pre-human existence, Jesus was a created spirit being, just as the angels were spirit beings created by God.

Nevertheless, they believe that Jesus died for our sins and that we have to place our trust in Him. In light of this, is His deity worth fighting over? Doesn’t doctrine divide and create acrimony? Isn’t it enough to believe that Jesus was, at least, a form of deity?

Hopefully, without any acrimony, I’d like to try to explain why this is such a critical doctrine, one that profoundly impacts our lives.

For one thing, God requires that we know, love and worship Him as He truly is. Jesus claimed that this knowledge was essential:


·        “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins." (John 8:24)

According to Jesus, faith and salvation were a matter of believing what He taught about Himself. In contrast, many today believe that a relationship with God isn’t about believing a set of teachings or doctrines about God, but rather in experiencing Him. Oprah asserted this very thing:

·        “God is about a feeling experience, not a believing experience…A mistake we humans make is believing that there is only one way…There are many paths to what you call God…There couldn’t possibly be just one way…Do you think that if you never heard the name of Jesus but lived with a loving heart…you wouldn’t get to heaven?...Does God care about the heart or if you call His Son ‘Jesus?’” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwGLNbiw1gk

According to Oprah, a relationship with God is a matter of both experience and the quality of our heart. However, we all fail the heart test (Rom. 3:10-18; 23). That’s why salvation must be by grace and not by our merit.

Understanding God is not optional. God had been angry at Job’s three friends because they failed to understand and speak rightly of Him:

·        After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. (Job 42:7)

Jesus reaffirmed the fact that we have to approach God bearing a correct understanding. He contrasted a true understanding with the understanding of the Samaritans:

·        “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the [doctrines of the] Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:22-24)

Why is God so insistent about being worshipped according to the truth of who He is? Perhaps we can best understand this if we examine our own relationships. We tend to value those friends who appreciate us according to who we really are, rather than people who might appreciate us but for the wrong reasons.

An accurate knowledge of God is so valuable that this is the one thing we can boast about (Jer. 9:23-24). For one thing, knowing that when we confess, He forgives our sins is so freeing. It also endears us to Him.

However, knowing of Christ’s Deity also endears us to our Triune God. Scripture reveals that the cross was a monumental demonstration of God’s love for us (Romans 5:8-10). I had experienced decades of the severest depression and panic attacks, even into my Christian life. It often felt that God was a cosmic sadist, eating popcorn as He delighted in the freak-show below.

Even though I wanted to believe otherwise, my feelings allowed no other interpretation. One night as I walked with head to the ground, crying my eyes out, I suddenly realized that this wasn’t a freak-show, and that Christ suffered on the cross for me and even suffered for me now (Heb. 4:15).

However, how could the cross demonstrate God’s love for me? God could have created 50,000 Christs in one second, at absolutely no cost to Himself. However, if Jesus is God and not a created being, this was totally another matter. God actually loved me so much that He Himself died for me! He didn’t send a mere created being to take my place.

Jehovah’s Witnesses isn’t the only groups that obscures the truth of Christ’s Triunity and His love for us. The modalists do the same thing but in a different way. For instance, the United Pentecostal Church claims that Jesus was no more than an appearance of deity, a manifestation – smoke and mirrors. Consequently, God didn’t die for us but rather an appearance of God “died” – hardly a token of God’s love.

I continue to find evidences of this atomic explosion of self-sacrifice that has changed this world. Jesus talked often of His coming moment of glory. How could anyone imagine that this moment would entail His time of pain and humiliation?

·        Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:23-24; 7:39; 13:31)

What love! He so desperately longed to show us His glory, and we thought that this had been fulfilled on the Mount of Transfiguration. However, He was pointing to something even more glorious - His torture and His death, the spit and the naked humiliation – the greatest tokens of His love.

It also served as an example for us of what our own self-sacrifice should look like. (Lord, help us!) Paul argues that if Jesus, God Himself, had humbled Himself to die on the cross, so should we do likewise for others (Phil. 2:3-8).

However, if Jesus isn’t God but rather a created, non-priceless being who was created for the very purpose of dying, this fails to both demonstrate God’s love and glory. It also fails to impress us into self-sacrificial living.

Furthermore, the death of a mere created being fails to humble us by showing us the depths of our sins. In fact, they were so weighty that the blood of animals couldn’t begin to atone for them:

·        Because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, 'Here I am--it is written about me in the scroll--I have come to do your will, O God.' " (Hebrews 10:4-7 quoting Psalm 40)

If our sins could have been atoned for in a less costly way, our Savior would have done it that way. However, nothing short of the death of the Savior would suffice! This humbles us more profoundly than would the crucifixion of a created being.

It also gives us great confidence. It demonstrates to us that if God loved us so much while we were still His enemies, how much more will He keep and protect us now that He has already paid the price and has converted us into a band of friends and worshippers (Romans 5:8-10).

Even beyond this, the cross of Christ our God communicates that we are rich beyond reckoning. Paul argues that if we have Christ, we have everything. Why? Because in Christ is everything – all Deity (Col. 2:9-10). Before making this life-altering assertion, Paul set forth the Deity of Christ – “the image of the invisible God…by Him all things were created…and hold together…all [God’s] fullness dwells in Him” (Col. 1:13-21). Therefore, we really do have everything, along with the assurance that we are co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17).

Because of these surpassing riches, we should never be tempted to think that we lack anything. We need to know that we are safe and beloved as we venture forth every morning into the discouragements of this life. The fact that God Himself died for us while we were still sinners can give us this assurance, especially as we drink deeply from the truth of our own unworthiness.


WOULD YOU EVER RENOUNCE YOUR FAITH?

Today's promise: God comforts those who are persecuted

Would you ever renounce your faith?

Arise, O Lord! Do not let mere mortals defy you! Let the nations be judged in your presence.
Make them tremble in fear, O Lord. Let them know they are merely human.
Psalm 9:19-20 NLT

Forty martyrs
"History knows them as the 40 martyrs of Sebaste. They were soldiers in the famed Twelfth Legion of Rome's imperial army, around A.D. 320. One day the captain informed his troops that Emperor Licinius had sent down an edict commanding all soldiers to offer a sacrifice to his pagan god. Forty of the soldiers were followers of Christ, and they refused.

The emperor decided to make an example of the soldiers, so he marched them onto a frozen lake and stripped them of their clothes. "Renounce your God and you will be spared from death," he told them. Not one man came forward. Throughout the night the men stayed together, singing their song of victory: "Forty Martyrs for Christ."

When morning came, 39 of the men had frozen to death. The one survivor recanted his confession of faith. The officer in charge that night had been so moved by the scene that during his watch he'd come to Jesus, so he broke rank and walked out onto the ice. Stripping his clothes he openly confessed his faith in Christ. He refused to renounce his new faith. When the ordeal was over, the Roman soldiers carried 40 frozen men off of the ice.

In comparison, my life is like a long night on a soft mattress. I may one day be faced with serious consequences for my faith. You may, too. Will we have the strength of character and heart and faith to stand strong just the same?"

From
Embracing Eternity by Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins and Frank M. Martin (Tyndale) p 58
Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

EVEN HER?

EVEN HER?

READ:
Joshua 2:1-14

Was not Rahab the harlot
 also justified?  -James 2:25

Imagine looking through your family tree and finding this description of your ancestor:  "A prostitute, she harbored enemies of the government in her house.  When she was confronted by the authorities, she lied about it."

What would you do about her?  Hide her story from anyone inquiring about your family?  Or spotlight and praise her in the legends of your family's story?

Meet Rahab.  If what we read about her in Joshua 2 were all we knew, we might lump her in with all of the other renegades and bad examples in the Bible.  But her story doesn't stop there.  Matthew 1:5-6 reveals that she was King David's great-great grandmother-and that she was in the lineage of our Savior, Jesus.  And there's more.  Hebrews 11:31 Names Rahab as a woman of faith who was saved from the fall of Jericho (see Joshua 6:17).  And in James 2:25, her works of rescue were given as evidence of her righteous faith.

God's love is amazing that way.  He can take people with a bad reputation, transform their lives, and turn them into examples of His love and forgiveness.  If you think you're too bad to be forgiven or if you know someone else who feels that way, read about Rahab and rejoice.  If God can turn her into a beacon of righteousness, there's hope for all of us. -Dave Branon

Redemption's price our Savior paid
When all our sins on Him were laid;
He took our guilt, He bore our shame
That we may glorify His name. -D. DeHaan
**************************************
Whether our sins are great or small,
Jesus is able to forgive them all.

INSIGHT
According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Rahab was an innkeeper as well as a prostitute.  She was also a maker of linen (v.6) and the mother of Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer who married Ruth (Matthew 1:5).

Have a blessed day and weekend.
God Our Creator's Love Always
Unity & Peace

Thursday, October 25, 2012

HOW DO THINGS LOOK TO YOU TODAY?

Today's promise: God comforts those who are persecuted

How do things look to you today?

"The wicked will not rule the godly, for then the godly might be forced to do wrong."
Psalm 125:3 NLT

Seeking what is really there
"Life under Louis XIV was not easy for the French Huguenots. They loved to sing psalms, but the king made an edict that forbade the singing of the Psalms almost everywhere. So the Huguenots went out to the fields and forests and continued their singing. Psalm 125 was a favorite of theirs, maybe because it said that the wicked would not rule the godly. Or maybe it was because the Huguenots could see something that Louis XIV couldn't see.

Remember the story of Elisha and his servant (2 Kings 6:8-23)? The servant couldn't understand why Elisha wasn't bothered about the hordes of enemy soldiers surrounding them. It looked like disaster, but Elisha could see horses and chariots of fire surrounding the enemy soldiers.

The same has been true for many other saints, including Paul and Silas, who sang at midnight in the Philippian jail, and Shadrach, Meshech, and Adednego, who calmly entered the fiery furnace.

When John Woolman, a Quaker missionary to American Indians, was faced with danger, he wrote, "I found my soul filled with comfort as I meditated on the love of God."

John Paton, missionary to South Sea Island natives, was surrounded by men seeking to assassinate him, but he wrote, "I never left without hearing, 'Lo, I am with you always.'"

How does it look for you today? Hopeless? Then take another look.

Adapted from
The One Year® Book of Psalms with devotionals by William J. Petersen and Randy Petersen (Tyndale) entry for October 24

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House