Showing Gentleness

Colossians 3:12 NLT

"Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience."

Gently tap objects as you walk through your house. You can tap a window, a hardwood floor, a countertop, a glass vase or the front door. Discuss why you need to be gentle when you tap items around the house. Concentrate on how fragile items can break and hard items can hurt your hands.

GOING DEEPER
Sometimes your actions are what you use to "tap" the people around us. It's important to remember that you can hurt others with your behavior, just as you can be hurt by what others do. Because you are fragile, God wants you to be gentle with others. Philippians 4:5 says, "Let your gentleness be evident to all." Your actions are evidence of your gentleness, and when you make an effort to be gentle with others, you show God's character to the world.

TALKING TO GOD
Thank God for the people in your life who show you gentleness. Ask God to help you find ways to show His gentleness to others.

TALKING TO EACH OTHER
- What is one thing you do that shows gentleness to others?
- How difficult or easy is it to show gentleness to others?
- How have others modeled gentleness to you?
- What can you do this week to show gentleness to someone?
*******Have Fun Till We Meeet Agajn*******

Settle Your Destiny! By Rick Warren

                           “For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.” (Hebrews 2:14-15 NLT)

One of the things Jesus came to Earth to do is take away your fear of death. How? By dying on the cross and being resurrected to show that there is life after death. The Bible says in Hebrews 2:14-15, “For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying” (NLT).

God wants to break the fear of dying in your life. Instead of looking to your pain here on Earth, God wants you to look to him and the hope of Heaven. And, he wants you to help those who are dying to do the same.  

“So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

When someone is dying, you need to encourage him to do what David did: “Death laid a trap in my path. But in my distress I cried out to the LORD” (Psalm 18:5b-6a). Have you ever done that? You can’t offer to other people what you haven’t received yourself. If you haven’t settled the issue of your salvation, you’re gambling with your eternity.

If you were to die today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to Heaven? If you’re not sure or answer “no,” you need to settle the issue right now so that you can be assured of life after death and point your friends to the hope of Heaven.

Pray this prayer today: “Dear God, you are God, and I’m not. You sent Jesus to be my Savior, so I must need to be saved. I need you to forgive the things I’ve done wrong in life. I need you to give me a fresh start in life. I need you to help me know my purpose. I want to begin a relationship with you. I ask you to come into my life. I want to learn to trust you. I want to learn to love you. I want to learn to love other people the way you want me to. So I ask you today with humility and honesty and sincerity to please save me as I put my trust in you. I pray this prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
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Defiling your conscience?

Hebrews 12:15 NLT

"Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many."
Filthiness of concience can be caused by bitterness or wrath.  Anytime the de il succeeds in making your heart to be bitter and vengeful, he has succeeded in hardening you to the word of God. A man that cannot forgive cannot be unclean. When a container is full of chaff, it is not possible for it to accommodate seeds (Word of God). The word of God is pregnant with the power of God. If only you can take this word and be ready to recieve it with open hands and heart, then you willwalk in this world as a profitable person. ( culled  from seedsof destiny by Paul Eneche)
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Crushed for our healing!

"Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord."
James 5:14 NLT
Why does the Bible talk about anointing the sick with oil? Is there something magical about the holy anointing oil? No, my friend. When we anoint our sick bodies with oil, we are simply releasing our faith in Jesus’ finished work. He was crushed for our iniquities so that we can be made whole.

Before anointing oil can be made, olive fruit must be crushed in a press. Likewise, before healing can be dispensed to us, Jesus had to be crushed. His crushing began at Gethsemane, which means “oil press”, and continued at the scourging post, ending only with His death at the cross.

Beloved, whenever you use the yoke-destroying anointing oil (Isaiah 10:27), see Jesus crushed for your healing. See the agony that He endured in order for His healing grace to be righteously bestowed upon you. As you meditate on His finished work, you’ll receive the benefits of His complete and perfect work!
*******Have fun till we meet again*******

" Five Things To Do in the Middle of the Storm" by Rick Warren

“But when [Peter] saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. ‘Save me, Lord!’ he shouted.”
(Matthew 14:30 NIV)

When you’re going through a storm, God is not distant or uninvolved. He is “I Am,” and he is working in your life for your good. But he also has some things he wants you to do. Here are five things God wants you to do if you feel you’re sinking in a storm.

Have courage, because Jesus is with you.

Don’t ever argue with a fear. Just tell it where to go! Tell it to go talk to Jesus.

TAKE A RISK IN FAITH

Don’t ask God to bless what you’re doing. Do what God is blessing. Ask him what he wants you to do, and then be willing to get out of the boat in an instant.

Stay focused on Jesus.

The moment you take your eyes off the Lord, you’re going under. Matthew 14:30 says, “But when [Peter] saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. ‘Save me, Lord!’ he shouted” (NIV). When you focus on the wind and the waves — your circumstances — you’re going to sink, just like Peter. If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed; if you look within, you’ll be depressed; if you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest.

DON'T DOUBT

You don’t need great faith to make it through the storm in your life. You just need faith in the right person.

PRAISE GOD

Even in the storm, even when you feel like you’re sinking, even when you’re scared to death — praise him all the time. Thank God in the middle of the storm.

What storm is scaring you right now? What storm is sinking you right now? Why do you think God is letting you go through this storm?

He’s letting you go through this storm for the same reasons he sent the disciples into the storm — to say, “I’m all you need. I can handle anything. I will come to you in the ninth hour. And I’ll come walking on the very thing that scares you the most. I’m not asking you to come to me. I’m going to come to you. You need to stop being afraid, and you need to totally trust me in faith.”

TALK IT OVER

How have you grown spiritually and in your understanding of God because of the storms in your life?
What can you do to limit the distractions that keep you from focusing on God?
*******Have fun toll we meet again*******

Be Encouraged

Psalms 13:1 NLT
"O  lord , how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way?"

My Spirit: I’m full of doubts

What are the most serious obstacles to your faith? Materialism? Busyness? Evolutionary science? Pleasures?

How about stamina? When God makes you wait and wait and wait some more for his providence, does that grind down your confidence? Have you had some long stretches of poverty or illness or unemployment? David said, “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1).

As God sees it, faith is like a muscle that needs a good workout to get stronger. Yeah--no pain, no gain. What often keeps us from developing the faith stamina we need is memory loss--we forget all the times that God did answer our prayers, when God did come through for us, when he did just what he said he would.

Waiting is okay. God is always on time. David answered his own question later in the same psalm: “I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me” (Psalm 13:5,6).
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BECOMING

Colossians 3:10 NLT
"Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him."
When a baby is born, it is first an infant then grows to be called a child, toddler, pre teen, teen, young adult, adult and then an old person. For each stage of growth of a child a nature is seen which testifies to that specific stage. If a child is a teen and still has the nature of an infant, it becomes a deformity. So for a child of God not to be deformed he/she must put on the nature that will identify he/she as a child of  God. This you can do by studying the word of God, meditating on it and living by it -(Joshua 1:8 NLT "Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.")
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Is Jesus in your job?

Welcome to the month of perfection!
“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” (Matthew 6:33 NLT)
                       If you want your life to turn from emptiness to overflowing, you have to give Jesus complete access to your life, including your career.Luke 5:3 says, “Jesus got into one of the boats, the one that belonged to Simon, and asked him to push off a little from the land. Then Jesus sat down and continued to teach the people from the boat” (NCV).The disciples had worked all night and caught nothing. Then Jesus stepped into their boat and told them to cast their nets again. When they did, they caught so many fish that the nets began to break! It’s the same lake, the same boat, the same nets, the same fishermen, and the same fish. The only thing that was different between nothing and fullness was Jesus is in the boat.
Here’s the starting point: You’ve got to get Jesus in your boat.First, what’s your boat? It’s how you make a living. Simon’s business was his boat because he was a fisherman. The boat represents your career, your profession, your job, just like it represented Simon Peter’s entire livelihood.What does it mean to have Jesus in your boat?It means you dedicate your career to God. We’re not talking about salvation here. You may have Jesus in your life, but have you given him control of your career. You’ve trusted him for salvation and you go to church on the weekends and praise God. But when you go back to work during the week, you put Jesus on the shelf, and he’s nowhere to be found in your job.When Simon Peter gave his job to Jesus for the Lord’s use, he was blessed with incredible results. But don’t miss the sequence. We sometimes think, “God, make me really successful in business, and then I’ll serve you with the success.” Wrong! It’s the exact opposite. First, Peter let Jesus use his job for his ministry platform. Then Jesus blessed Peter’s job with enormous success. That’s the order.The Bible says in Matthew 6:33, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (NLT).Whatever you want God to bless, put him first. You want God to bless your time? You give him the first part of every day. You want God to bless your money? You give him the first 10 percent of your income, no matter how small it is. You want God to bless your job? You give him control, no matter how successful you are.

Talk It Over:-
.What would it look like if you gave control of your job to Jesus?
.What are your fears or concerns about making God the center of your career?
.How do you want God to bless you in your career? What do you think he wants you to do first?
I read this write up by Rick Warren and it really spoke to me and I decided to share it with my blessed readers.
*******Have fun till we meet again*******