A Daddy's Homecoming!

Little Girl Has Emotional Reaction to Her Soldier Daddy's Homecoming from sharethemessage on GodTube.

A Mother Forgives

Matthew West - Forgiveness: Mother Forgives Drunk Driver Who Killed Her Daughter from matthew-west on GodTube.

Gospel - God Breathed

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. Rom 1:16

“The Gospel is preached in the ears of all—it only comes with power to some. The power that is in the Gospel does not lie in the eloquence of the preacher, otherwise men would be the converters of souls. Nor does it lie in the preacher’s learning, otherwise it would consist in the wisdom of man.

The power which converts souls does not even lie in the preacher’s simplicity or adaptation to his work—that is a secondary agency, but not the cause. Again, the power which converts souls does not even lie in the pathos which the speaker may employ.

We might preach till our tongues rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there were the mysterious power of the Holy Spirit going with it, changing the will of man! O Sirs! We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the Holy Spirit is with the Word to give it power to convert the soul!

-Spurgeon

http://tollelege.wordpress.com

Filled Up and Poured Out

Attitude Is Everything

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! Phil 2:5-8

Let us live in this spirit, dear friends. The man who believes in the doctrines of grace, and yet thinks much of himself, is highly inconsistent. A man who believes salvation to be all of grace, and yet does not glorify God continually, acts contrary to his own convictions. “Oh, magnify the Lord with me: let us exalt his name together.” He took us up out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay; and he set our feet upon a rock and established our goings. He put a new song into our mouths, even praise for evermore. Praise be unto him, for he hath done it, and he shall be extolled.

-Spurgeon

http://www.thedailyspurgeon.com

LIVE to be READY...

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:13-14

Live as if you thought that Christ might come at any time. Do everything, as if you did it for the last time. Say everything, as if you said it for the last time. Read every chapter in the Bible, as if you did not know whether you would be allowed to read it again. Pray every prayer, as if you felt it might be your last opportunity. Hear every sermon, as if you were hearing once and forever. This is the way to be found ready. This is the way to turn Christ’s second appearing to good account. This is the way to put on the armor of light.

~ J.C. Ryle

http://jcrylequotes.com

Forgiveness Is a Gift Given and Received...

"Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"  Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." Matt. 18:21-22

Our forgiveness must be given.  No one earns it - or deserves it, any more that we deserve theirs.  But few of us can give any greater gift than forgiveness.  Think what happiness could be brought to those who would only forgive.  I did not say "receive forgiveness," but "forgive."

Forgiveness is a gift, sovereignly bestowed to be humbly received.  Then both giver and gift are blessed.

Let's give - and receive graciously - forgiveness.

by George E. Failing "With Open Face, 1983."

Forgiveness Demands Forgiveness

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Heb. 8:12

No matter how deeply a person may be scarred by wrongdoing and evil, with the moral courage and strength available to them through Christ, they can turn from the corrupt way and receive forgiveness and a new life from God. But they receive even more. God will forget the guilt of the past, never again to taunt them with it.

Divine forgiveness obligates us in turn to forgive any who wrong us. Jesus said as much when He taught His disciples to pray, “Forgive us . . . as we forgive (Matt. 6:12). It is therefore a mark of the true Christian always to be free from resentment and revenge.


by Armor D. Peisker "With Open Face, 1983."

Nothing in our world is so Godlike as forgiveness

But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matt 6:15

What this age needs is to kneel before the cross of Calvary and look into the face of Him who, though God in the flesh, defended not His rights but reclaimed the rights of every fallen member of the human race.

From the cross of infinite love come the words: “Father, forgive them.”  Some eminent Bible scholars affirm that the tense of the verb in the original means that Christ kept saying, “Father, forgive them.”  When the centurion spiked Him to the crude cross: “Father, forgive them.”  When the soldiers parted His garments and gambled for His seamless robe: “Father, forgive them.

This is the example He left us.  Dare we be unforgiving though grievously wronged?  Dare we hold hatred in our heart while we speak His name in prayer?”

by Oliver G. Wilson  "With Open Face, 1983"

Esteem God Highly - It Matters!

You are my portion, O Lord;
I have promised to obey your words
I have sought your face with all my heart;
be gracious to me according to your promise.
I have considered my ways
and have turned my steps
to your statutes

Psalm 119:57-59

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.

We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God.

-A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: HarperCollins, 1978), 1.

How Can Couples Overcome Their Differences?

Pray for Colorado

Pray for Colorado! on GodTube.