Video - Beth Moore: Doing Impossible Things

In this message, Beth Moore explains how God gives us all the ingredients to be fulfilled, but leaves it up to us to be productive. Enjoy!   ~Eve

Don't Be Bound By Rejection!

Louis McBurney, in an article for Leadership Journal, said there are four reasons people reject accountability. 1) I fear rejection, 2) I feel embarrassed, 3) I resent control by hostile people, and 4) I don’t like facing my negative feelings.

Rejection is the worst pain the human spirit can suffer. Rejection is at the root of many emotional problems and many health issues. When we are rejected by others, we can also reject ourselves. So, how can rejection come in? Let's take a look at just a couple of examples that come to mind.

In marriage, rejection may come later in life. Sometimes after we marry. A Woman wants prince charming, but the husband didn't treat her how she expected. Rejection! With children. Children in this generation have a lot of competition for time with their parents. People live busy lives and busy has become equated to successful. People fill their schedules with things to do whether they are a priority in their lives or not. Children are learning that love is having things because they see parents investing their lives in work to get material possessions. Rejection! 

You could say that rejection is a rejection spirit. And a rejection spirit is a lying spirit. Perhaps a lying spirit brought to our mindset some lies from the devil and told us, that we are not wanted, not loved, not appreciated, not good enough. This may start in childhood. This mind-set makes us strive to earn our acceptance. It makes people feel driven to perform in order to be approved. This mind-set makes people feel they are loved for what they do rather than for who they are. It is demeaning. It robs people of peace.

The sad thing is that no amount of achievement is ever enough to satisfy it. The devil inflames insecurities and fears. This demon seeks to undermine the Christian‚s true standing before God as a saved, cleansed, redeemed child of God. He does this by lying and attempting to deceive the believer regarding God's love, the atoning work of the cross, and our righteousness before God.

This lying spirit comes between family members and divides brothers and sisters and makes them feel isolated. The spirit of rejection pours gasoline on the fires of racial hatred. This demon is very successful in splitting up marriages, churches, and partnerships. These are vital relationships which the Holy Spirit wants to establish between friends. These relationships are necessary in the Body of Christ in order for God's work to be done. Disunity, like divorce, often has this lying spirit as its agent provocateur.

How can one recover from rejection? God understands rejection and knows how to remedy its pain. Christ was rejected when He came to His own people and they would not receive Him. "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him." (John 1:11). He endured rejection when He bore our sins. "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not." (Isaiah 53:3).

God understands your feelings. Therefore, He can be touched with your pain and is ready to heal you. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16).

Here's how to diagnose if you suffer from the spirit of rejection. Three areas to examine are circumstances, emotions, and thoughts. Let's start with your circumstances. Did you have an alcoholic parent? Were your parents divorced? Were you abused? Have you been abandoned or betrayed in marriage? Have you suffered from discrimination? Have you had to break away from a controlling relationship? Have you been repeatedly de-valued as a person? If you fit any of these categories, then you could be a victim of the rejection syndrome.

Now let's consider your emotional hot-buttons. Do you have great difficulty receiving correction? Do you take it personally and get offended? Do you resent all authority? Do you get angry for no apparent reason? Or, Do you have an unnatural need for everyone to like you? Does the need for approval control your decisions? Does insecurity sweep over you? Are you plagued by chronic self-doubt? Do you wrestle with chronic bouts of loneliness? At times, do you despair of life, or are you tempted to take your own life? If so, then you probably battle rejection.

In addition to these diagnostic questions, ask yourself this about your thought life. What kind of thoughts run through your mind when you are with a group of people? Would you characterize these thoughts as mostly negative or positive? The spirit of rejection inserts these kinds of thoughts: "These people don't love me." "They won't talk to me." I'm not worthy to be here." "I know they are judging me." "They don't really want me here." This is mental torment that typifies the spirit of rejection.

However, all is not lost! There are some things that you can do to kindle inner healing and deliverance. Try some of these ideas:

1. Take it to God in prayer

2. Realize this, rejection often carries with it unforgiveness toward those who have offended you
In this case, your forgiveness must be explicit, by name, and it must be spoken aloud even if it is only to God, and even if it is for someone who is now dead. Repent of all bitterness and hatred.
3. Take all negative thoughts captive. Don't let them rule over your mind. Replace them with words and images of faith that come from your heavenly Father. Take God's thoughts, God's attitude, God's will as your creed, not the words of this sinful world.
4. Repeat what the Scriptures say until they replace the lies you've heard. Soak in God's word and let it renew your mind. Meditate on the Scriptures until faith, hope, and self-acceptance fills your personality.

Of  course, all of this takes time but it is something you can do for yourself. Replace Satan's lies with God's word. Tell yourself the truth until you truly believe it. Banish all self-doubts. Soak your thoughts in the truth of who God is, what He has done for you, and who you are in Christ.

Scripture: 1 Peter 2:4; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Psalm 139:13-14; John 1:11; 1 Peter 5:7; Philippians 4:19; Romans 8:31

Prayer:  “In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I have died to my sins. I am a new creation; old things have passed away. Because of my death with Jesus and the fact that He bore my curses with Himself on the cross, I hereby cancel the curse of rejection. I break its hold in my life, and I expose the deception of Satan wherein he has lied to me, saying that I was rejected by God and man. I am accepted into the family of God. Jesus bore my rejection by God and man on the cross. He has freed me from the curse of sin and rejection. Thank You, God, for my freedom.” In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen

God bless you!

Kate

Look No Further Than God For Forgiveness

There's a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read: Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father. On Saturday 800 Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers.   -Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, pp. 13

In Genesis 32 we find Jacob preparing to meet his brother Esau. And how scared Jacob had to be! He had tricked his brother Esau and deceived him. He had received birthrights that rightfully belonged to Esau. When this happened, he fled! He went far away (with a little help from his mother) to his uncle’s house. He fled because he was afraid Esau would kill him. He just knew at that time that if Esau found him, he was done for!

Many years had passed and Jacob was returning home at the Lord’s urging. You know what he had to have been thinking about, right? I'm sure that he didn't have a relaxing trip. I'm sure that all along he kept thinking "What is Esau going to do? Will he kill me?" I'm sure with each step that he took, there was more and more anxiety.

Put yourself in Esau’s shoes. How would you have reacted? We would all love to say that we would have let bygones be bygones. But you know what? We don’t really do that a whole lot. We hold grudges. We don’t talk to each other. Almost everyone can think of people, maybe friends or family members, who don’t talk or communicate because of something that happened years ago; and they can’t even remember what it was! Think about it. Even if we were in Jacob’s shoes, we would have feared the worst because we know what we would do if we were Esau.

Many of us live in fear in our daily lives because of our past sins. Many of us have been frozen by our past sins against someone or even more so, a past sin someone has committed against us. Think about it! How many of us do not move on in our Christian walk because we can’t forgive ourselves for something we've done. Or how many of us can’t let go of some wrong that someone has done to us?

In the text mentioned above, Jacob is preparing for the worse. He divided the people in two groups so that if Esau attacked one group the other group could escape. How often do we imagine the worse? We give God no credit for the fact that He can heal those wounds and can fix the problem.

Now, moving on to Genesis 33 where Jacob sees 400 men and puts his plan into immediate action. He knew it! He and his family were going to be destroyed. How dare God lead him into such a terrible situation! Ever feel that way? God is asking you to do something that you don’t want to do. How dare Him? Who does He think He is, God?

The tension builds and builds, and then...what happens? Jacob finds that Esau had forgiven him and the brothers have shared fellowship together! Esau did what most of us would not do. Instead, Esau did what God does. The only time in Scripture you can find God getting in a hurry is in the story of the prodigal son. 

In that story the prodigal son, (which represents us) squandered all of his inheritance and when he came back home, he came back just as Jacob did. He came back with the hopes that he could be a servant, but what happened was he was met with “open arms” by the father, (which represents God).

And that is what Esau did. He put the past behind him because he had missed his brother. He was ready to welcome him home. Isn't it awesome that this is exactly how God is? He doesn't hold the past against us. He runs to meet us and then welcomes us home. What is keeping you from being the servant that you should be? What is it you are afraid that God won’t forgive. Trust me, He will. He loves you and just like Esau was with Jacob, God longs to welcome you back.

Scripture: Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13; Luke 6:37; Ephesians 4:26; Proverbs 3:5; 1 John 1:9; Acts 7:59-60

Prayer: Dear Lord, I ask that you grant me the wisdom to overcome the challenges that lie ahead. Help me know that all will turn out fine in the end as you are here to guide me.

May God bless you!

Tiffany

Trust God During Your Seasons of Life

"Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man: yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairs breadth of time assigned to thee live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it."

Have you ever asked yourself the following questions: "Why do we have difficult times and joyous times? Why do we have sorrow and grief? Why do we have both pain and happiness?" I'm sure that we all have at one time or another.

There really is no simple answer to any of these questions, but I like to think that it's because it takes different seasons in our lives for God to get our attention, to awaken us to spiritual values, to challenge us with the reality of life and death and Christian commitment, and what He would have us do with our lives.

Maybe it might be easier to look at it this way. There are four seasons that God has given to us. Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, but there are many, many, many seasons of life. And right now, at this very moment, every one of us are going through different seasons in their lives. You may be in one season of growth, and family members or friends in another season. Sometimes that causes real tension and difficulty.

You see, it helps to understand when they're going through a different season from you. If you're working with somebody, and they're going through a certain season of life, it helps you to understand as you work with them why their attitude is like it is. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, to everything there is a season. "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven." Another translation says, "Everything on earth has its special seasons."

I’m so thankful we have the Bible to help us understand how God works in all the seasons of life to help us find faith and grow and mature. It reminds us how God works through the providences, or foreseeing care and guidance, of life; and fulfills His purposes in ways that at the time seem so mystifying. It calls us to examine our lives in the light of eternity.

God uses every season to teach us something, to communicate to us something about Himself, something about His faithfulness, something about His love in sending His Son, something about His strength, something about His power.

So, you might start by asking, "How is God directing us in this season of life in which we find ourselves right now?" Deuteronomy 11:2 says, "Remember what you've learned about the Lord through your  experiences with Him." In other words, don't waste your experiences; God can teach you something through it. And never forget the things that God has taught you.

Next ask, "How can this season of life correct me?" Because many times God will allow the difficult things of life to correct us and make us more like Him. And don't say, "I'm going through a tough season of life, so when I get through this season of life, then I'm going to really appreciate and enjoy life."

Therefore, dear friends, if you're going through a season of life, and you don't think much is happening, be faithful to God; keep trusting Him. We're going to grow through that experience. God is up to something even  when we don't see Him working. So I want to encourage you whatever season of life you're in, pain or disappointment, victory or success, or some other great blessing, to see the hand of God in it. 

Scripture: Daniel 2:21; Acts 1:7; Galatians 6:9; 1 Peter 1:6; Hebrews 4:6; Jeremiah 5:24-25; 2 Timothy 4:2

Prayer: Loving Father in heaven, thank you for giving me the victory over sin and death in Jesus. I know that just as you raised him from the dead, you will also raise me up at the great day of Jesus' return. Please use that resurrection power in me to help me live more victoriously today. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Have a blessed day!

Cara

Saturday Scripture Gold with Bibi: God's Glorifying Love For Us!

"On the whole, God's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him."   -C.S. Lewis

How much does God love us? Did you ever stop to wonder about this? Let's face it, we're not so easy to love. We have many faults and undesirable qualities which make it very difficult for even us to tolerate one another; yet God still manages to overlook these things and love us unconditionally. Is that cool, or what? This is precisely what I would like to discuss with you today: God's love for us.

God’s love for us is what motivated Him to send Christ into the world to save us. Christ paid for our sins, which had separated us from Him. This sacrifice not only brings us peace with God, it also brings us into a personal, loving relationship with Him (Romans 5:1-5). God’s atoning love through Christ is the source of all our spiritual blessings.

Another way God shows His love for us is by calling us out of the darkness of sin and into the light of fellowship with Him. Even more, because God has called us to Himself, He promises to protect that relationship (John 10:28) and never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-25). God’s calling love is a promise to always be with us.

Because of our sinful nature, we have no power to fulfill God’s law. But God’s love is shown through Christ who redeemed, or paid, the price we owed for our rebellion (Galatians 3:13). God’s redeeming love frees us from guilt and fear.

God’s love is shown by justifying us (or declaring us innocent) by grace through faith in Christ. Christ is treated as if he were the sinner, and the sinner is treated as if he were the righteous one. God now sees us through Christ’s righteousness instead of through our sin. God’s justifying love allows us to stand accepted before Him (Romans 3:23-25).

God shows His love for us by not only forgiving us of our sins, but by going even further and bringing us into His family. He has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints (Colossians 1:12). This inheritance includes salvation, strength, hope, peace, comfort, providence, fellowship and so much more!

Still another way God also shows His love is by sanctifying, or setting us apart, for His purpose. We’re sanctified in two ways: positionally and progressively.

We’re sanctified “positionally” when we come to Christ. In the Old Testament the priests would continually make sacrifices because they never permanently paid for sin. But Christ offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice and has paid for our sins once and for all. So we’ve sanctified, or set apart, to obtain salvation through Christ.

We’re also sanctified “progressively” throughout our Christian lives. Progressive sanctification isn't about our salvation — we’re saved by grace and not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9) — it’s about how we live after we've been saved.

Progressive sanctification is the process of dying to sin and living for Christ by becoming more like Him. It’s about producing the fruits of the Spirit as opposed to producing the fruits of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-23). God’s sanctifying love sets us apart for His special plans. God’s adopting love allows us to call Him “Father."

Finally, God shows His love by glorifying us. Throughout our lives we’ll wrestle with sin, but we’re promised that the good work God begins in us will be completed (Philippians 1:6). When we go to be with the Lord our sinful nature will be left behind and we’ll like Him, and with Him, forever. God’s glorifying love is the ultimate destination for Christians.

Now, let's pray...

O Father, give us the humility which realizes its ignorance, admits its mistakes, recognizes its need, welcomes advice, accepts rebuke. Help us always to praise rather than to criticize, to sympathize rather than to discourage, to build rather than to destroy, and to think of people at their best rather than at their worst. This we ask for in thy name's sake. Amen

Until next time...

Have a blessed week!

Bibi

Bible Study Snacks, Acts 25:13-27

Hi, everyone!

Happy Friday, and welcome back to Bible Study Snacks! I hope everyone had a nice week. It's great to be here with you again! As always, I thank you so much for joining me as we walk together through the richness of God's spoken word, and wisdom. I pray that today finds you in good health and strong in faith!

This week, I would like to continue our study of the Book of Acts, with Chapter Twenty-five, Verses 13-27.

I have designed these studies to be brief, yet packed full of good information for everyone regardless of your level of biblical knowledge. I might add that these quick studies make perfect small group discussion starters, as well!

As always, I whole-heartedly believe in the importance that any Bible study should begin with prayer. If you have your Bible ready, let's pray together...

"Heavenly father, please guide us as we study your Word today; I pray that our hearts and our minds will be open so that we will not only receive your Gospel, but learn from it as well; you are the Light of the world, Lord, and your Spirit will illuminate our path as we journey through your teachings. In the name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. Amen"

If you are taking notes for yourself, or using this for a bible study with others, here are the objectives for this week's lesson...

OBJECTIVES: This week, the reader will...

 1) Observe Paul before King Agrippa.

For your convenience, here is a summary of Acts 25:13-27...  

A few days later, King Agrippa and Bernice go to Caesarea to greet Festus as the new governor, replacing Felix. Festus lays Paul's case before Agrippa. He notes that Felix has left Paul a prisoner with his case not resolved. He recalls that the chief priests and elders of the Jews informed him about Paul during his recent visit to Jerusalem. Festus recounts to Agrippa that he had told the Jews that it was not Roman custom to deliver the accused for "destruction" without the accused having the opportunity to answer the charges face to face.

Upon Festus' return to Caesarea, he has Paul come before the judgment seat. He discovers nothing wrong in Paul, other than there are some questions about "their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." Festus asks Paul to go to Jerusalem, since he is "uncertain" about these matters.

At that point, Festus notes that Paul appeals to Caesar. After Festus' explanation of Paul's case, Agrippa requests to hear Paul himself. Festus says to Agrippa, "Tomorrow you shall hear him." Paul is brought before King Agrippa the next day, following much pomp upon the entry of Agrippa and Bernice into the auditorium with the commanders and other prominent men of the city. Festus explains the situation to Agrippa and the others. He reports that the Jews claim Paul is not "fit to live any longer."

However, Festus stats that he finds Paul has committed nothing deserving death. He notes that Paul has appealed to Caesar, and he is going to send him. Festus indicates that he has nothing to write to Caesar about Paul. He hopes that after Agrippa's examination of Paul, he might have something to write. He thinks it is unreasonable to send an appeal to Caesar without specifying the charges.  (13-27)

REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1) Why had Agrippa and Bernice come to Caesarea? (Acts 25:13)
2) What did Festus tell Agrippa about, after they had been there many days? (Acts 25:14-15)
3) How did Festus describe his response to the Jew's request? (Acts 25:16)
4) What questions was Festus uncertain about? (Acts 25:18-20)
5) What was Agrippa's response to Festus? (Acts 25:22)
6) While before Agrippa, what did Festus state that the Jews cried out about Paul in Jerusalem? (Acts 25:24)
7) What was Festus' finding in Paul's case? (Acts 25:25)
8) What was Festus' dilemma in which he found himself? How was he hoping Agrippa could help? What did he find unreasonable? (Acts 25:26-27)

After completing this week's study, I encourage you to go back and read through the material again. Take your time and read each topic and scripture reference as many times as you feel necessary. Keep in mind that by doing this, you just might see something new that you overlooked the first time around!

As we journey through the Bible together, I will continue to pray that God’s message will come through to you loud and crystal clear. Until next time, I wish everyone a blessed week!

God bless you!  

Sheri

Video - Beth Moore: The Shocking Peace of God

In this message, Beth Moore explores how wrestling with God brings us closer to His love. Enjoy!   ~Eve