QUOTE OF THE WEEK [SUNDAY 29 JULY 2012 TO SATURDAY 4 AUGUST 2012]

QUOTE: I sought day and night to make out the meaning of Paul; and at last I came to apprehend it thus: Through the gospel is revealed the righteousness which availeth with God – a righteousness by which God, in His mercy and compassion, justified us; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith”. Straightway I felt as if I were born anew. It was as if I had found the door of Paradise thrown wide open. Now I saw the Scriptures altogether in a new light – I ran through their whole contents as far as my memory would serve, and compared them, and found that this righteousness was really that by which God makes us righteous, because everything else in Scripture agreed thereunto so well. The expression “the righteousness of God”, which I so much hated before, now became dear and precious – my darling and comforting word. That Passage of Paul was to me the true door of Paradise.

AUTHOR:  Martin Luther (10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German monk, priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. His refusal to retract all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Emperor. Luther taught that salvation is not earned by good deeds but received only as a free gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin. His theology challenged the authority of the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge and opposed sacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood. Those who identify with Luther's teachings are called Lutherans. His translation of the Bible into the vernacular (instead of Latin) made it more accessible, causing a tremendous impact on the church and on German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the translation into English of the King James Bible. His hymns influenced the development of singing in churches. His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant priests to marry.

BIBLE VERSE OF THE WEEK [SUNDAY 29 JULY 2012 TO SATURDAY 4 AUGUST 2012]

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. – John 8 verse 32 (KJV)

DEVOTION OF THE WEEK [SUNDAY 29 JULY 2012 TO SATURDAY 4 AUGUST 2012]

NOTICE: The following article is written by the author itself and not by me, I am not trying to violate their copyright. I will give some information on them.

PAGE TITLE: CBN Daily Devotional

ARTICLE TITLE: Getting On With Your Life

AUTHOR: Bruce Swaffield

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Bruce Swaffield is a professor in the Regent University School of Journalism in the the College of Communication.

URL: http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/devotions/swaffield_life.aspx

DATE: N.A 

Daily Devotional

Getting On With Your Life

By Dr. Bruce C. Swaffield
Professor, Regent University

CBN.com – Our lives are filled with good and bad memories. The impressions of the past live in our minds, and we can look at them over and over again. The scenes we recall are like snapshots, forever stopped in time. Still, they evoke strong feelings that have the power to influence our thinking. Ironically, most of these lifeless pictures determine who and what we are right now although they captured moments many years and places ago. Our present attitude, as well as our behavior, depends on which events we choose to relive. 

Our human nature is to dwell on the negative – what we regret or what injured us. Our divine nature, on the other hand, looks forward to and focuses on what lies ahead in the kingdom. We can easily become obsessed by the former and forget about the latter, even though we know heaven should come first. That is precisely why we have so much trouble “getting on with our life” once we have been offended or wounded. We look so long at reflections that make us unhappy we cannot see what is there to make us happy. 

“I can’t do it,” you might be thinking. “There is too much for me to forget and too much for me to forgive. The pain and the anger won’t go away. I am still suffering. It’s impossible for me to get over what happened.” For the most part, you are right. You can’t get over the past. You can’t put it behind, at least not on your own. But Jesus can. He can make you forget and forgive. He can give you the strength to move on without the hurt and the anxiety. He can heal the wounds completely if you let him. 

It is time for us to get rid of what prevents us from being ourselves: the wonderful child that God created, not the person the world has molded. Take all of the many pictures of your life that you hold in your mind. Put them all together on the table in front of you. Look at each one carefully, and then choose the ones you want to keep and the ones you want to forget. Throw away the images not worth keeping and showing to others. What value or purpose can there be in sharing situations that remind us who we were long ago? We are not that person anymore. We have changed. 

“Forget the former things,” the Lord told Isaiah. “Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!” You, my friend, are that “new thing!” If those around you do not recognize you today it is because they do not realize who you are now; they are seeing the old thing of years ago. They perceive only what they saw then, nothing more and nothing less. What do you think would happen, for example, if you suddenly went back to the same people who hurt you? Would they welcome you back? Probably not. They cannot forget the past because they are living in it. Why, then, would you want to keep looking at dark memories of what is done and over? 

You and I are made for today, not yesterday. Our future depends on the present, and nothing is more important than what we do right now. This moment is the perfect time to start moving forward again and stop letting guilt stop us. “He whom the Son sets free, is free indeed.” There is no reason for anything (or anyone) to hold us back. No person on earth can keep us captive because we have been released from bondage. Get rid of those old pictures of you being beaten and bruised. The only one you need to keep is that of Jesus on the cross.

DEVOTION OF THE WEEK [SUNDAY 22 JULY 2012 TO SATURDAY 28 JULY 2012]

PAGE TITLE: Made To Fish – PD's Blog

ARTICLE TITLE: Do you have an evil heart?

AUTHOR: Pastor Douglas Graham

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Pastor Doug has pastored Cedarville Church of the Nazarene since July 2000. http://www.madetofish.com/staff.php?staffID=16960& & http://blog.madetofish.com/

URL: http://blog.madetofish.com/2012/07/23/do-you-have-an-evil-heart/

DATE: Monday 23 July 2012

Pastor Douglas Graham

Do you have an evil heart? [Monday 23 July 2012]

As you know on July 20, 2012 James Holmes killed 12 people in a theater in Aurora, Colorado and injured many others.  From our view point James Holmes is an evil man, and he is, but does that mean the rest of us aren’t evil?

From God’s view point, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”  Jer. 17:9.  And Romans 3:12 says, “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

James Holmes is a murderer, but Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”  Matt 5:21-22.

We may not have physically killed someone, but from God’s view point if we have hated anyone we’re a murderer at heart.  If you’ve hated several people, then you’ve committed a massacre in your heart.  From God’s view point we’re no different from James Holmes.

From man’s view point it seems like God doesn’t care about protecting the lives of those people in that theater, but think about it, what happens to a society when you kick God out of schools, teach that we all came from monkeys, evolved by random chance over millions of years, tear down crosses and the Ten Commandments, compromise the Word of God, ban prayer in schools, glorify violence and pornography, and rise up idols of your own making?  You get a movie massacre.

I can assure you, God does care and God is love.  How can I say that after such a horrible tragedy?  Cause the Bible tells me so.  Its man that is evil.  We’re the ones to blame.  We’re the ones who have decided to turn from the one true God and worship our false idols.

It’s man who doesn’t care.  It’s man who doesn’t love.  God is good and He’s merciful, but He’s also just.  And His judgments are always righteous.

Yet Jesus died for the worse of sinners.  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  2 Cor 5:21.

Jesus was treated like a sinner though He never sinned, not even once.  He died at the hands of murderers.  He died for people who declared their self-righteousness when they had no righteousness at all.

Jesus died the death we all deserved to die, but in His great mercy and amazing grace, He bore our sin, He took our punishment, He suffered on our behalf so that we could be set free.

There is no greater love than the love of Jesus Christ.  This tragedy is another reminder for us to turn from sin and place our trust in Jesus Christ.  He alone can save us.

If you want to change our society no man made solution will work.  The solution is always the same; we must go and make disciples by preaching the Gospel.

This tragedy is also a reminder for the church to be the church.  Sitting in our pew, focused on fellowship, electing the right person to office, or even fighting for a good cause isn’t going to save one soul.

Until the church takes a stand for the authority of God’s Word, and actively shares the Gospel with people who are lost, why should we expect this society to get any better?

“For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” 1 Peter 4:17.

It’s the Gospel that this evil world needs.  Why?  Because God taught us in Romans 1:16 that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.  And that includes those who murder people outwardly as well as those who murder people in their heart.

Does the love of Christ so captivate your heart that you will love and pray for your enemies?  Does it humble you before a just and holy God?   Does it cause you to worship the one true God?  Does it cause you to go to an unbeliever and tell them about the Gospel of God’s amazing grace?

There was a time in my life where I could care less about others and care less about God, even His love.  But then God opened my eyes.  Someone shared the good news with me.  I saw my deceitful, wicked, sinful, evil heart and humbled myself before the Lord.  I cried out for mercy and He saved me.  He forgave even me.

Those who share the Gospel and those who are Christians aren’t perfect, but we do serve a perfect Savior.  If I were without sin, if my heart wasn’t evil, I wouldn’t need Jesus.

Jesus is so good, He rescued an evil man like me, He made me His child, He gave me a new heart, a pure one, and then He put His robe of righteousness around me and said, “You’re free!”

Think about it.  Love, Pastor Doug

QUOTE OF THE WEEK [SUNDAY 22 JULY 2012 TO SATURDAY 28 JULY 2012]

 

QUOTE: “Yes, if evangelical Christianity is to stay alive she must have men again, the right kind of men. She must repudiate the weaklings who dare not speak out, and she must seek in prayer and much humility the coming again of men of the stuff prophets and martyrs are made of.”

AUTHOR: Aiden Wilson Tozer (April 21, 1897 - May 12, 1963) was an American Christian pastor, preacher, author, magazine editor, Bible conference speaker, and spiritual mentor. For his work, he received two honorary doctorate degrees.