John 3:17 says: “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Here we see the entirety of the purpose of everything that Jesus did. What did He do? He came to save. He did not come to condemn, and He did not come to sentence anyone. Not then, and not now. He does not come to enforce a sentence upon us or to heap upon us the reward of a wrong that has been done away with. Jesus comes for our greater purpose, the purpose of God. He comes to save. Everything Jesus does has to do with salvation – even a rebuke, even an instruction, even the cleansing of the temple. All of these things have to do with salvation. We will look in the coming days at what Jesus did, and all of the things that are related to the salvation He gave to the world and to us.

Jesus saves!

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“Do not be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

(Ephesians 5:18)

Do you ever feel like the Christian life doesn’t work for you? Do you feel it’s just too hard? If you answered “Yes,” read on.

D. L. Moody was talking with a friend one day about this very problem. Placing an empty drinking glass on the table before his friend, he said, “Tell me, how can we get the air out of this glass?”

His friend immediately replied, “You could remove it with a pump.” Moody reminded him that the resulting vacuum would shatter the glass. The friend thought hard before admitting he was stumped. Moody then brought a pitcher and filled the glass with water.

“The air is now removed,” he said. “In the same way, it doesn’t work to try forcing the sin out of our lives; more sin just rushes in to replace it. But being filled with the Holy Spirit does the trick.”

The key to living the Christian life is not the result of trying to act like a Christian. That only leads to frustration. The secret is developing your relationship with God empowered by the Holy Spirit. As God’s Spirit fills us, and as we come to better understand who God really is, our lives are changed—from the inside out. Right behavior is merely the end product.

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The Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you.  Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day.  On the sixth day they’ll gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”

God meets daily needs daily!

You look at tomorrow’s demands, next week’s bills, next month’s calendar.  Your future looks as barren as the Sinai Desert.  “How can I face my future?” you ask.

God tells you to look up!

Trust Him.  Make it your day changer.  Give your attention to what God is doing right now.  Don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.  Mark 7:37 says, “God has done it all and done it well.”

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Lust (Photo credit: Leonard John Matthews)

Don’t be drawn away by the lust of the flesh.

Proverbs 6:24-29 “To keep you from the evil woman, From the flattering tongue of a seductress.

25 Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, Nor let her allure you with her eyelids.

26 For by means of a harlot A man is reduced to a crust of bread; And an adulteress will prey upon his precious life.

27 Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned?

28 Can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be seared?

29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;”

It has become the plague of the 21st century and the strategy by the devil to destroy the family. Marriage and the family is ridiculed and scorned on by the world and Children of God need to make a stand against the wave of sexual perversion that has us sweeping the world. The kingdom of God needs men with backbone and moral integrity that will take their place as priests in the home and not be drawn away by the lust of the flesh.

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God is more than able to give you what you need and more. He is able to make you rich!

Follow the Directions

by Pastor Andre Butler

Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and

cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when

thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that

take, and give unto them for me and thee

Mathew 17:27

Look at this example of how God is able to provide with abundance, even

for paying tax. Jesus told Peter to take a hook, throw it in the

water, take the first fish that took the hook, open his mouth, and find

four days wages.

Notice two things. First, God gave this fish specific directions. The

fish had to go down to the bottom of the sea, eat the gold coin, swim

over to the shore, and wait. When the hook came, he had to jump on it.

Secondly, Peter had to be obedient to God’s specific instructions.

When you start worrying about how and what’s going to happen, you take

your focus off God and start looking for the person you think God’s

going to use. Forget the how—just know Who! God is more than able to

give you what you need and more. He is able to make you rich!

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Sons of God

You received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba,” Father.

Romans 8:15, NIV

What makes you and I  think we can do without a personal prayer life? It’s through prayer that we come into a personal, intimate relationship with our heavenly Father.

Do you long to have a closer relationship with God, but you don’t feel worthy? Are you convinced you are a nobody and therefore would never be accepted, much less welcomed, into His presence?

Praise God! Our entrance into His presence is not based on our own worthiness but on the worthiness of Jesus Christ! When we enter God’s presence in Jesus’ name, we are as accepted by God as Jesus is, because God counts us as His own dear children!

Jesus invites you and I, in His name, to come into His Father’s presence through prayer, crawl up into His lap by faith, put our head on His shoulder of strength, feel His loving arms of protection around us, call Him “Abba” Daddy, and pour out our hearts to Him.

Blessings

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1980s (mid) - Eve - tree - pigtails - 0033 (Photo credit: Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL))

The Wages of Sin

by Bishop Keith A. Butler

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto

the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and

unto dust shalt thou return.

Genesis 3:19

This verse records the actual death sentence that doomed Adam and

Eve-and you and me-to physical death one day. Death, sickness, disease

and lack were never included as parts of God‘s perfect plan for man.

These are the sad by-products of sin, of Adam’s fatal choice to seek

knowledge and identity outside of and separate from God’s plan.

God never intended for a single human being’s body to be put into the

ground. He created us to live eternally-every our physical bodies. As I

understand it, the cells of the human body appear to be designed to

live forever. Scientists have long been puzzled as to why they

gradually run out of energy and die. The answer is in God’s Word in the

Book of Genesis.

It even appears that the animals in Eden never died-or they didn’t

until God had to kill two animals and use their skins to cover the

nakedness of Adam and Eve after they sinned. Those innocent animals

died to provide a covering for Adam and Eve’s shame and nakedness. This

incident marks the first appearance of the blood sacrifice of innocents

as atonement for the guilty, and it drives home the horror of the wages

of sin.

Prayer for Today

Father,

You are the all-powerful, all-wonderful, almighty Savior of the world.

Thank you for redeeming me from the power of sin and death and for

giving me life eternal through your Son. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Think on These Things

* Daniel 12:2

* Ecclesiastes 3:20

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Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream…. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

Jeremiah 17:7-9

We cannot separate actions from consequences. Why, then, do we allow our culture to tell us that we can plant seeds of one kind and bear fruits of another? The world tells us that we can plant seeds of promiscuity and carelessness and bear fruits of beauty, happiness and even love. But the results are disease, unwanted pregnancy and unhappiness.

Root and fruit are inevitably intertwined.

Isaiah 32:17 says, “The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.”

One of the surest ways to change your life for the better is to stop sowing seeds that bear bad fruit! Plant seeds of righteousness and put those roots in your life. Unlike the culture around us, the Bible takes a very clear position on right and wrong.

Ask Him to guide your actions so you will produce good fruit that is pleasing to God.

Further Reading

•Jeremiah 6:19

•John 15:4

•Galatians 5:22-23

God Bless

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The key to success or failure lies in doing things at the word of Jesus

AT THY WORD

Luke 5:5, “And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.”

LUKE 5:1-11

Peter and his companions had been working hard all night. Their efforts had not produced even one fish. They had given up and were headed home. But Jesus told them to try it just one more time.

It would have been easy for Peter to reject Jesus’ command. After all, Peter had been a fisherman all his life. Jesus was just a preacher. What did He know about fishing? Yet something, or rather someone, caused Peter to try just once more.

Many people are like Simon Peter and his partners. They have done all that they know to do and yet they’ve come up empty-handed. This breeds a despair and hopelessness that causes many people to quit trying. Yet, just one word from Jesus could make the same tasks that have been unproductive on our own bear great fruit.

The key to success or failure lies in doing things at the word of Jesus. Peter said, “at thy word I will let down the net.” God‘s words always get results.

Today, make sure your efforts are directed by God and you will experience the results that have eluded you in the past.

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How long will you slumber, O sluggard? It is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it

READ: Proverbs 6:6-11

How long will you slumber, O sluggard? —Proverbs 6:9

While studying the book of Proverbs in my small-group Bible study, our leader suggested that we change the description of a lazy person from a sluggard to a slacker (6:6,9). Ah, now he was speaking my lingo. I immediately started thinking of all the people I consider to be slackers.

Like the men and women who fail to teach and discipline their children. Or that guy who refuses to help around the house. Or those teenagers who neglect their studies and play Internet games day and night.

If we’re honest, we’re all susceptible to this. What about being a “prayer slacker” (1 Thess. 5:17-18), or a “Bible-reading slacker” (Ps. 119:103; 2 Tim. 3:16-17), or a “non-exercising-of-our-spiritual-gift slacker” (Rom. 12:4-8), or a “non-witnessing slacker”? (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 1:8).

If we are not doing what we know God wants us to do, we are certainly spiritual slackers. In fact, when we refuse to obey God, we are sinning.

Listen to these challenging and convicting words from the book of James: “It is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it” (4:17 NLT). Let’s not be spiritual slackers. —Cindy Hess Kasper

When we know what God wants us to do,

But then we refuse to obey,

We’re ignoring the voice of the Lord,

And sinfully choosing our way. —Sper

We may make excuses for not obeying God, but He still calls it disobedience

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