Read All About It!

 Happy Sunday!

"Good news from a faraway place is like a cool drink of water when you are hot and thirsty."(Proverbs 25:25 Easy-to-Read Version.

We all like to get Good News!  Well, I hope you like to get good news!  I sure do!  When everything in the world seems to be bad, negative, and fear inducing there is always Good News in the Secret Place for the Child of God.  Jesus proclaimed, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."(John 14:27 KJV).  Don't miss this!  Jesus did not pretend that things in the world were just fine.  He did not tell us that everyday would be filled with only good and no evil.  BUT he ensured we would have everything we needed to overcome.

Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."(Luke 4:18-19 KJV).  The Easy-to-Read Version says it this way, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me.  He has chosen me to tell good news to the poor.  He sent me to tell prisoners that they are free and to tell the blind that they can see again.  He sent me to free those who have been treated badly and to announce that the time has come for the Lord to show his kindness.”

You don't need an advanced degree to know that Good News to a poor man is the truth that you don't have to be poor anymore!  Good News to a man that is bound physically, mentally, or emotionally is the fact that you are set free!  Good News to the Blind, Lame, or Sick is that healing is yours!  In 3 John 2, the Apostle John echoed this, "My heartfelt prayer for you, my very dear friend, is that you may be as healthy and prosperous in every way you are in soul."(Phillips).  There is Good News for us today!  The Bible is full of Good News and promises made to you by our Ever Faithful God.  But there's only one way to get this Good News, you must read all about it in the Word of God.  Romans 10:17 says, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."(KJV).

Love and prayers, Cynthia

Red Letters

 Happy Sunday!

“I promise you,” returned Jesus, “nobody leaves home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property for my sake and the Gospel’s without getting back a hundred times over, now in this present life, homes and brothers and sisters, mothers and children and land—though not without persecution—and in the next world eternal life."(Mark 10:29-30 Phillips).

Have you ever gone through your bible and read the red lettered words?  In bibles with this differentiation, the red letters represent things that Jesus said.  It amazes me that some Christians don't believe the Word of God.  And so many don't even trust the things that Jesus said Himself.  Why call yourself a Christian if you can't abide by, rely on, and believe the Word?  A rich young ruler had just come to Jesus in the scriptures before this one.  He insisted that he'd kept all the commandments since his youth.  Jesus said, “There is one thing you still need to do. Go and sell everything you own! Give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come and be my follower.”(Luke 18:22 CEV).

The rich young ruler was sad, and the disciples were shocked.  They weren't poor as so many would like you to believe.  They were businessmen who left their businesses to follow Jesus.  They thought to themselves, if a rich man can't get into Heaven how will we get in?  Now, before you delete this email let's go to John 12:6.  Mary the sister of Lazarus broke a costly bottle of ointment and anointed Jesus.  Then Judas Iscariot commented about this action being a waste, and that it could have been used to help the poor.  The Word says, "But Judas did not really care about the poor. He said this because he was a THIEF. He was the one who kept the moneybag for the group of followers. And he often stole money from the bag."(John 12:6 Easy-to-Read Version).  Don't miss this!  He was the treasurer for the ministry of Jesus.  There was enough money in the treasury for him to steal out of it regularly, and no one knew about it, except Jesus.

What this rich your ruler didn't know was the Word of God.  If he'd studied the Word, and applied it to his heart and life he would have known the Word says, "When you help the poor you are lending to the Lord—and he pays wonderful interest on your loan!"(Proverbs 19:17 Living Bible).  It also says, "Those who help the poor succeed will get many blessings. When trouble comes, the Lord will SAVE them."(Psalm 41:1 Easy-to-Read Version).  One more for good measure, Proverbs 28:27 says, "Give to the poor and you will NEVER be in need."(GNT).

I remember singing at offering time, "You can't beat God giving, no matter how you try!"  We sang it in churches where the offering list on the next weeks bulletin would show small dollars amounts and some cents.  We sang it and lived in poverty.  This should not be!  God wants us to prosper, BUT in order to prosper we have to believe His Word.  We have to trust that His Word is truth.  We have to know that nothing we've ever given is lost.  God is faithful.

Love and prayers, Cynthia

Different

 Happy Sunday!

"Then everyone will once again see the difference between those who obey me by doing right and those who reject me by doing wrong."(Malachi 3:18 CEV).

Are you different?  No, I don't mean are you unique.  But are you different?  God made you unique, you are a one-of-a-kind you.  The Psalmist wrote, "I praise you because you made me in such a wonderful way.  I know how amazing that was!"(Psalm 139:14 Easy-to-Read Version).  But being different means an outsider can observe the way you act, talk, and live and see that you do things with excellence and integrity.  Think about Daniel.  You do remember Daniel, don't you?  He was taken into captivity, proved to be 10 times better than his co-workers, became a President over Princes in Babylon, and became a target for the ungodly.

Daniel 6:4-5 says, "This made the other presidents and governors very jealous, and they began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling his affairs so that they could complain to the king about him. But they couldn’t find ANYTHING to criticize! He was faithful and honest and made no mistakes.  So they concluded, “Our only chance is his religion!”(Living Bible).  Don't miss this!  The ungodly men around Daniel had trouble finding anything to accuse him of.  He had true integrity.  The only thing they could try to target him with was his devotion to God.  Isn't that crazy that anyone would be offended by your devotion to God?

So Daniel's HATERS went to the King.  "Your Majesty, we hope you live forever!  All of your officials, leaders, advisors, and governors agree that you should make a law forbidding anyone to PRAY to any god or human except you for the next thirty days. Everyone who disobeys this law must be thrown into a pit of lions.  Order this to be written and then sign it, so it cannot be changed, just as no written law of the Medes and Persians can be changed.”(Daniel 6:6-8 CEV).  So what did Daniel do?  I'm so glad you asked!  "Daniel heard about the law, but when he returned home, he went upstairs and prayed in front of the window that faced Jerusalem. In the same way that he had always done, he knelt down in prayer three times a day, giving thanks to God."(Daniel 6:10 CEV).

I'm sure you know the rest of the story.  Daniel was thrown in the lion's den, spent the whole night there, and came out unharmed.  But that wasn't the case for his accusers.  Daniel 6:24 says, "And the king ordered the men who had brought charges against Daniel to be thrown into the pit, together with their wives and children. But before they even reached the bottom, the lions ripped them to pieces."(CEV).  Is it any wonder the New Testament Apostles refused to stop preaching in the Name of Jesus?  Acts 4:18-20 says, "So they called them in and ordered them bluntly not to speak or teach a single further word about the name of Jesus. But Peter and John gave them this reply: “Whether it is right in the eyes of God for us to listen to what you say rather than to what He says, you must decide; for we cannot help speaking about what we have actually seen and heard!”(Phillips).

Love and prayers, Cynthia