THANK GOD FOR EVERYTHING!

By Stella Dhinakaran

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you    (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Once, a man of God from England had gone to Africa to do ministry. He proclaimed about the Lord to the people who absolutely had no knowledge of the Lord and turned many towards the Lord. Observing this, the village headman was greatly annoyed due to jealousy and planned to kill the man of God.

He cunningly invited him home and gave him a feast, mixing poison in the food. But the Pastor, after praying over the food saying, “Lord, bless this food; sanctify it and strengthen me as I eat it” started eating it. The Lord, who heard the prayer, completely nullified the toxic effect of the poison in that food. So no harm befell him. The village headman’s heart was broken seeing this and he realized that the pastor was truly a man of God. After that he too accepted the Lord as his personal Saviour and made it possible for the Pastor to spread the Gospel throughout the village.

My dear beloved, do not worry saying, “Alas, I have this terrible disease; I am unable to bear this”. The Lord is still alive to give you perfect healing. His strength will be made perfect in your weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).

“He (the Lord) will bless your bread and your water…..” (Exodus 23:25).

According to the scripture, pray before you have your food saying, “Lord, thank You for this food which You have given; bless it and sanctify it” and then consume the food, you need to be aware that the Lord sanctifies it by His Word and prayer. Yes my beloved! if you are thankful to God in everything as stated in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” God will certainly give you what you have thanked Him for!

Carman - No Plan B

Graham Kendrick - Knowing You Jesus

False Alarms and Idiot Lights

By Greg Laurie

Our smoke alarm went off the other night at 4:00 A.M. I jumped out of bed and was ready to take action. Turns out the unit malfunctioned. (Why does it always go off at 4:00 A.M. and not P.M.?)

Because of incidents like this, we tend to tune out alarms. Who even looks when a car alarm goes off in a parking structure? We assume it's just someone trying to find their car.

One alarm you do not want to ignore is the fuel light in your car. If you do, you will come to a complete stop. You can't run on fumes.

Many marriages today are "running on empty." They have not taken hold of the power that's available; they're not operating by the principles given in the User's Manual. Remember, God invented marriage. And there is a right and wrong way to do it.

Happy, strong, and lasting marriages don't happen by accident. Marriage is something that to be good and fulfilling takes the right ingredients. It is the result of effort on the part of the partners involved.

Marriage is not so much finding the right person as it is being the right person. But all of this is to be done with God's help. A strong and happy marriage is the result of obedience to God and His Word and laying aside this world's distorted "take it or leave it" concept of marriage.

If we want to have the closest thing to "heaven on earth" apart from Christ's return—if we want a marriage and family that succeeds, we must do it as He tells us to.

It's all in the "User's Manual of Life," the Bible.

In the Potter's Hands

By Greg Laurie

Then the LORD gave me this message: "O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand." Jeremiah 18:5-6

The prophet Jeremiah describes a trip he took to the potter's house, where God spoke to him:

The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, "Go down to the potter's shop, and I will speak to you there." So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.

Then the LORD gave me this message: "O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand." (Jeremiah 18:1–6)

We are like clay in the Potter's hands. There are things God is doing in our lives, and we have a choice: We can respond to His working, or we can resist His working. We can yield to what He wants us to do, or we can disobey when He tells us to do something.

As we continue reading the story of Jeremiah and his visit to the potter's house, we find a description of a field with cracked pots, vases, and wreckage. These were things that didn't work out, so the potter took them and threw them into the field.

Life is like that. There are people who flex and move and go the way that God wants them to, and they turn into what God wants them to be. Then there are people who resist and say no to God. They self-destruct, and their lives end up in ruins, like broken pottery in a field.

God has a plan for your life. The question is this: Will you work with God's plan, or will you resist it?

Will You Wage War on Evil?

by Franklin Graham

I cannot overstate what a dangerous era we have now entered. Immorality and debauchery are endorsed—and celebrated—by courts and political leaders. God’s standards are mocked, and the battle lines are clearly drawn between a decadent, defiant culture and believers who are committed to the truth of the Gospel.

The Scriptures state just how serious the rejection of God’s truth can be: “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law” (Proverbs 29:18).

The church of the Lord Jesus Christ provides culture not only with encouraging salt and light, but also with a divine restraint on the spread of evil and wickedness

What Would You Like Your Last Words to Be?

By Greg Laurie

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Revelation 20:22

A person's last words often provide a glimpse into their character. They reveal what a person valued most. Some parting comments are thoughtful; others spontaneous; others surprising.

On March 14, 1883, the day Karl Marx died, his housekeeper came to him and said, "Tell me your last words, and I will write them down!" Marx replied, "Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!"

Groucho Marx's last words were, "Die, my dear? Why, that's the last thing I'll do!"

Nostradamus predicted the future correctly: "Tomorrow, I shall no longer be here."

Pablo Picasso said, "Drink to me. Drink to my health. You know I can't drink any more.

The Roman emperor Julian, having attempted to reverse the official endorsement of Christianity by the Roman Empire, gave his last words: "You have won, O' Galilean!"

The words of men of faith are far different.

When Stephen, who was being stoned to death, was dying, his last words were, "Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56). Then Stephen said, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." Young Stephen—so like Jesus, who from Calvary said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

John Wesley said, "The best of all is: God is with us!"

D.L. Moody: "I see earth receding, and heaven is opening. God is calling me."

F.B. Meyer requested, "Read me something from the Bible—something brave and triumphant!"

Here are the last recorded words of Jesus: "Surely I am coming quickly" (Revelation 22). The apostle John, overwhelmed, offers a prayer: "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" The word Amen means "So be it!" Or as Saint Paul said, "Let it be." (Saint Paul McCartney, that is.)

What would you like your last words to be?