Never quit.
Go after what you want with a totally committed attitude. Remember life is so short that you must enjoy each and every moment. Look at your fears, laugh, and then move forward. Accept responsibility for your actions and the type of person you want to be. Learn to love learning. Grow constantly. Embrace change willingly. Never say never. Think like a winner. Learn to love yourself, forgive yourself and be happy being who you are. Surround yourself with positive messages and people. Be in charge of your life, and let others be who they are. Be kind, think right about the other person, always expecting the best from them. Learn to be effective, not always right. Include God in your life. Thank him for all he has given you, your family and friends. Be the type of friend you would like to have. Make a difference to just one person, each and every day of your life, whether it be by a smile, a gentle touch, a kind word or a helping hand. Learn to be flexible, few things are black and white and written in stone. And above all, remember that people are much more important than things. Jesus Christ is present in every single book of the Bible.
God’s precious Word has both the Old Testament and the New Testament .. In the Old Testament Jesus is miraculously concealed and in the New Testament Jesus Christ is magnificently revealed. .. GOD’S WORD .. As God’s children there is no doubt that the Bible is our absolute life-life .. but as we spend time meditating in God’s Word, how much do we really know about this priceless treasure and the life-changing Truth it carries ? .. THE BOOK OF SECOND KINGS : A DOUBLE PORTION AWAITS THOSE WHO ARE FAITHFUL UNTIL THE VERY END In terms of Biblical history, the book of Second Kings continues to relate to us the names, the reigns and some of the actions taken by the various rulers of the divided kingdom. Throughout Second Kings you will learn about good kings and bad kings, those who were determined to serve God and those who were just as determined not to. Sadly, Second Kings will also remind you how Israel as a nation continued to jump back and forth between honoring God and dishonoring Him. As you spend time with God in His precious Word, you will become increasingly aware that throughout the Old Testament, there is one truth that is repeated time and time again, and it is once again reiterated in the book of Second Kings .. When you obey God you will be blessed .. HOWEVER .. if you are living in disobedience to God, you can not expect Him to bless you. Besides the lessons of obedience and disobedience, the book of Second Kings also holds a very important lesson on faithfulness. One of the most noteworthy events in Second Kings is the death of Elijah .. Now this of course was not your typical death, Elijah was simply caught up in a whirlwind and taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. Now as you know Elijah had become a mentor to Elisha. Elisha was an extremely loyal servant to Elijah and he remained committed and faithful to him right until the very end. Elisha's determination and faithfulness was greatly rewarded because after Elijah had gone home to be with God, Elisha was blessed with a double portion of Elijah's spirit and he became a powerful witness used by God in great signs, wonders and many, many miracles. Simple but Practical .. two words that describe the life principles that you can learn from Second Kings. Firstly you must remember that making the wise choice to obey God will lead to blessings .. but .. if there are unwise choices made that cause disobedience and dishonor to God, this will lead to curses. The second thing to remember is that God will always reward your faithfulness. What the ministries of both Elijah and Elisha clearly show, is that God is a God of miracles, and that has not changed .. GOD STILL DOES MIRACLES TODAY !! Your miracle is just around the corner .. You remain determined .. You remain confident .. You remain faithful to God .. Don't you dare give up just before your breakthrough comes .. there is a double portion blessing waiting for you if you will remain faithful until the very end. .. JESUS CHRIST .. As In First Kings, in Second Kings He remains .. Our Reigning King Hezekiah trusted the LORD God of Israel. No king among all the kings of Judah was like him. 2 Kings 18 : 5 In a remote Swiss village stood a beautiful church. It was so beautiful, in fact, that it was known as the Mountain Valley Cathedral. The church was not only beautiful to look at--with its high pillars and magnificent stained glass windows--but it had the most beautiful pipe organ in the whole region. People would come from miles away--from far off lands--to hear the lovely tones of this organ.
But there was a problem. The columns were still there--the windows still dazzled with the sunlight--but there was an eerie silence. The mountain valley no longer echoed the glorious fine-tuned music of the pipe organ. Something had gone wrong with the pipe organ. Musicians and experts from around the world had tried to repair it. Every time a new person would try to fix it the villagers were subjected to sounds of disharmony-- awful penetrating noises which polluted the air. One day an old man appeared at the church door. He spoke with the sexton and after a time the sexton reluctantly agreed to let the old man try his hand at repairing the organ. For two days the old man worked in almost total silence. The sexton was, in fact, getting a bit nervous. Then on the third day--at high noon--the mountain valley once again was filled with glorious music. Farmers dropped their plows, merchants closed their stores--everyone in town stopped what they were doing and headed for the church. Even the bushes and trees of the mountain tops seemed to respond as the glorious music echoed from ridge to ridge. After the old man finished his playing, a brave soul asked him how he could have fixed the organ, how could he restore this magnificent instrument when even the world's experts could not. The old man merely said it was an inside job. "It was I who built this organ fifty years ago. I created it--and now I have restored it. That is what God is like. It is He who created the universe, and it is He who can, and will, and is in the process of restoring it. --James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) pp. 244-245. God made us He can restore us too. We brought nothing into the world, so we can take nothing out. But, if we have food and clothes, we will be satisfied with that. 1 Ti 6:7-8
Satisfied? That is one thing we are not. We are not satisfied… We take a vacation of a lifetime… We satiate ourselves with sun, fun, and good food. But we are not even on the way home before we dread the end of the trip and begin planning another. We are not satisfied. As a child we say, "If only I were a teenager." As a teen we say, "If only I were an adult," As an adult, "If only I were married." As a spouse, "If only I had kids."… We are not satisfied. Contentment is a difficult virtue. Why? Because there is nothing on earth that can satisfy our deepest longing. We long to see God. The leaves of life are rustling with the rumour that we will—and we won't be satisfied until we do. When God Whispers Your Name (by: Max Lucado) Christ rose first; then when Christ comes back, all his people will become alive again. 1 Co 15:23 TLB
God has made [a] promise to us. "I will come back … ," he assures us. Yes, the rocks will tumble. Yes, the ground will shake. But the child of God needn't fear—for the Father has promised to take us to be with him. But dare we believe the promise? Dare we trust his loyalty? Isn't there a cautious part of us that wonders how reliable these words may be? … How can we know he will do what he said? How can we believe he will move the rocks and set us free? Because he's already done it once. When Christ Comes (by: Max Lucado) Can you imagine being a thousand times more blessed than you are? That might seem a little challenging to wrap your mind around. But that’s God’s dream for you — to increase you, promote you, and pour out His favor upon you. It doesn’t just mean material things — it means a thousand times more joy, a thousand times more peace, and a thousand times more wisdom.
The scripture talks about how you’ll live in houses that you didn’t build. You’ll reap from vineyards that you didn’t plant. What does that mean? You may have had people who have gone before you, your ancestors, who prayed and believed. They sowed so many good seeds, but the fact is they didn’t see the increase and the favour that you’re seeing today. What happened? They paid the price for you. They stayed faithful and now the Lord God of your fathers is increasing you. He is showing you unusual, extraordinary favour. Today, keep your heart and mind open for what God wants to do in your life. He wants to bless you and increase you beyond what you could ever imagine. When you believe His Word, your faith in Him activates His promises. Receive His Word and tap in to the blessing He has for you! ~ Joel Osteen "Marriage demands toughness, and toughness proceeds out of commitment. No
marriage will ever be stronger than the commitment that serves as its infrastructure" (Neil Clark Warren). Not too many of us, when we get married, think that marriage will demand out of us what it does - a toughness to weather storms we never knew we'd battle. But that's a big part of what happens in marriage. We're often blind-sided by difficulties, which require a real infrastructure of commitment to get past the negativity that comes into a relationship. To help us keep our commitment strong through those tough times, we'd like to share something Dr. Neil Clark Warren wrote in his book, "Learning to Live with the Love of Your Life" (Tyndale House Publishers), on this subject: "For most people, the demands of marriage are mind-boggling. It requires all of the energy you can give --and then it asks for more. It involves a continued need for negotiation and compromise, for give and more give. "Mind you, I'm a big believer in marriage. I have never seen happier, more deeply satisfied people than men and women who have made their marriages work. But neither have I met many people in highly successful marriages who got there without an enormous expenditure of energy, courage and determination. There were times they simply had to be 'willful.' "Virtually every successful marriage requires all kinds of willpower. Sometimes issues arise and the partners don't have the necessary skills to manage them. They essentially have two choices: give up and run away, or get about the task of developing the required skills. "Partners with willpower adopt the second alternative. They wouldn't think of giving up. They're ready to go to work on the problem, ready to do whatever they must to keep their marriage healthy for a lifetime. "The foundation of willpower is a set of marital promises. It is this set of promises that serves as the steel structure of every great marriage. Both partners need to know exactly what they originally promised to each other, and they need to be currently committed to those promises so that their willpower will always be stronger than any opposing force. "Marriage doesn't just happen! It takes solid set of decisions, a huge amount of skill, and enormous willpower. I contend that people in extremely healthy marriages built those marriages just as you build a mammoth bridge or skyscraper. They made their marriage triumphant because they simply wouldn't settle for less. "It doesn't matter to them how much back-breaking work it requires; if it were necessary, they would do a thousand times more. Their willpower gives them this kind of toughness. "The problems for a marriage in this society are too demanding for out-of- shape marital players to handle. There are too many ways that a marriage can be destroyed; in order for it to be successful, both marriage partners must be highly focused and highly energized. This focus and energy come directly from a keen sense of the promises they have made. These promises must be as current as their breathing. "If these promises haven't been burned into their brains, the inevitable problems will roll right over the top of them. Their marriage will be demolished. My experience tells me that a high proportion of married people are totally unfit to face complex marital challenges. Often, they become flabby from inattention to their original decision-their early commitment. They have done almost nothing recently to prepare themselves for the demanding events that are always lurking. "They're like tennis players who haven't played for a long time. When they face an opponent who is well practiced and in peak condition, they get slaughtered. They aren't ready! How come? No one warned them to stay tough! Why not? Because everyone, especially the two of them simply assumed that they could make it fine on the basis of their love, warm feelings, and past success. This assumption is absurd, but it's responsible for the overpowering of out-of-shape marriage partners by the enormously demanding, but inevitable, problems involved in building a successful marriage. "I'm convinced that until we start seeing marriage more realistically, the divorce rate is going to stay at epidemic levels. Marriage is incredibly difficult! We had better start recognizing this. Anyone who is going to succeed in marriage needs determination. Obviously, great skillfulness is required, but the development of the necessary skills often takes time. "That's why you need to have a current, deeply owned, thoroughly rehearsed set of promises to your mate. If you don't have this, if you're out of shape, if you aren't ready for a slew of tough battles that will test your endurance, then you're in danger of becoming a divorce statistic. "Don't kid yourself. Great marriages are the result of backbreaking work! They simply do not come easily. Two people must be skillful and strong. They need to be tough! Strength and toughness come from reciting over and over [something two clients, Sue and Jim, came up with]: 'I will love you when the times are good or bad. I will cherish you even when I am upset with you. I will honor you at all times. I will never be disloyal to you. And I mean this forever. So help me God.'" .......................................... Aren't Sue and Jim's words a great "pledge of allegiance" to the marriage vows? It's something we all need to embrace as married couples --something we need to teach young couples who are about to be married, as well. Another way of saying it is, "Marriage Isn't for Wimps!" In our marriage, we've found that as we tough things out, determining that NOTHING will separate us --emotionally, spiritually, or physically, "So help us God," our relationship continues to grow healthier and more satisfying with each passing year. (We're now 39+ years and counting.) "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend [marital partner] can help him up. But pity the man [or wife] who has no one to help him [her] up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). If you haven't already committed yourself to this marriage toughness -- this 3 strand commitment, today can be a new beginning as you ask God to help you to begin to make it so, starting NOW! |
Ana & Andre Schoonbee God uses us to motivate and encourage the body. Authors
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