Mark Cahill - No Crossing over

Are there verses in the Bible about HOPE?

THE ANSWER IS YES!

· Verses of HOPE!

o IN God

§ Psalm 39:7

§ 1 Peter 1:21

o In Christ

§ 1 Corinthians 15:19

§ 1Timothy 1:1

o In God’s Promises

§ Acts 26:6-7

§ Titus 1:2

o In the Mercy of God

§ Ps. 33:18

o Is the work of the Holy Spirit

§ Romans 15:13

§ Gal. 5:5

o Obtained through

§ Grace – 2 Thess. 2:16

§ Patient and Comfort of the scriptures

· Psalm 119:81

· Romans 15:4

§ The Gospel

· Col. 1:5

· Col. 1:23

§ Faith

· Romans 5:1-2

· Gal. 5:5

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding. ALL BUT ONE !!! He paused, took a deep breath, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.
He was glad he did.

The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.
When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, 'Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?' She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, 'I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly.'

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, 'Mister......' He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, 'Are you Jesus?'
He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: 'Are you Jesus?' Do people mistake you for Jesus?
That's our Destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.
If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would.
Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.
You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.
Please share this.... Sometimes we just take things for granted, when we really need to be sharing what we know...Thanks

What Consumes You!

What Consumes You!

What is important to you? What makes you get up in the morning? What is your motivation for doing whatever you do every day of your life?

These are questions that most of us don’t even consciously consider day to day, but in reality we should. As you grow physically and spiritually, more opportunities will come along that will test your motivation for your daily decisions.

Recently my wife went to a funeral of a very close relative. This death was especially sad because they were not a believer. They were a good moral person but they had not made the most important decision that can be made. That is to accept the free gift of salvation.

Are you motivated to share this free gift with others? There are so many times when the Lord gives us opportunities and we brush them aside saying “ next time, I am to busy right now”, or “what do I say”. You might only have one opportunity.

As a believer when you are lead by the Holy Spirit you open up yourself for amazing opportunities to be a light in the darkness.

Matthew 6:20, 21 say “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven….” and “..where your treasure is there your heart will also be”.

Looking back to the questions that we started with, is the answer to those questions something that could be laid in heaven? Remember that what you treasure the most will consume you.

I pray that you will make living for God no matter what the cost your treasure and in doing that, the Word will come alive to you. It won’t just be words on a page, but it will be heart changing and life changing.

by: Chad Greenacre

A Lesson From the Past

I believe a storm unlike anything America has ever seen is on the horizon. A change is coming that found its footing and fruition in a new administration and an already very corrupt Congress. It is in the past that I think we can find our for boding future.

Think about it. What in the world is going on? As a nation we have incredible technology and amazing advancements in every field. We have for the most part the best of the best. Even with all of that something is missing. Like a cake without a key ingredient, the taste just isn't right. For the most advanced nation in the world to be approaching implosion should be a cause for question if not alarm. If we suddenly become ill we call the doctor to diagnose the problem. If the check engine light pops on we don't ignore it and assume everything is alright. And yet, while many are concerned about about the direction that our government is heading, I have only heard one person in the national media mention the solution.

At the end of the book of Judges we find the nation of Israel in one of her bleakest and darkest periods. The nation had reached the low point of rejecting God's leadership through a king. They wanted none of it and sought to do it their own way. We read in 21:25 "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes." As a result of rejecting God everything was falling apart. Eventually God brought Israel's own enemies in to drag them into captivity so that they would willing come back to Him. Throughout the Old Testament any time God's chosen people cut Him out of their lives trouble ensued.

In the New Testament we see what happened when a group of people rejected God. In Romans chapter one we are told that "although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing them selves to be wise they became fools." Out of this rejection of God came twenty two characteristics of a society that rejects God. You can find these listed in verses 28-31. While this was written a long time ago it certainly sounds like a contemporary description of America.

What has happened? First we took prayer and Bible reading out of our schools, then we made the wholesale murder of our children a legal and acceptable practice. In recent years calls have come from some in our own Congress to remove all of the verses of Scripture from our government buildings. We've outlawed Christmas carols, Nativity scenes, any mention of God and now we are printing money without "In God We Trust."

Is the coming storm anything like what Israel went through? If so we are headed for some major changes. Is it too late to reverse things or is our course set?

Evidence for a Young World

Here are fourteen natural phenomena which conflict with the evolutionary idea that the universe is billions of years old. The numbers listed below in bold print (usually in the millions of years) are often maximum possible ages set by each process, not the actual ages. The numbers in italics are the ages required by evolutionary theory for each item. The point is that the maximum possible ages are always much less than the required evolutionary ages, while the Biblical age (6,000 years) always fits comfortably within the maximum possible ages. Thus, the following items are evidence against the evolutionary time scale and for the Biblical time scale. Much more young-world evidence exists, but I have chosen these items for brevity and simplicity. Some of the items on this list can be reconciled with the old-age view only by making a series of improbable and unproven assumptions; others can fit in only with a recent creation.

Check out these evidences on the answers in Genesis website - Just go to this site!

http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/4005.asp

Falling into a nightmare of reality

This is for those that didn't make it last Wednesday night.

Will You Stand Firm?

In Genesis 39 Joseph the son of Jacob has just begun a journey into the unknown, all on his own. No parents, no friends. We remember that his brothers hated him mostly because of the love their father had for Joseph. They took they anger out on him by selling him to a band of slave traders.

Joseph finally wakes up from this bad dream of his brothers throwing him into a pit and then selling him (like he was one the many sheep that his father owned), to find himself in another bad dream. He woke in the pagan empire of Egypt.

Joseph was sold and bought again by the captain of the Pharaohs Guard. His name was Potiphar. In chapter 39 verse 2 its says - "And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was prosperous." God wants to bless our lives but we need to first be obedient to Him. Joseph as we will see was obedient to the heavenly Father.

Catch the continuation of the decisions that Joseph had to face in Egypt. Remember he was a teenager when he was first sold.