God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John
4:24). The Father seeks worshippers. The worship that
we offer God must not be confined by place or form, but be spiritual as God
Himself is spiritual. The worship in spirit is the worship of the Father in the
Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Sonship. We need the Spirit of Truth to offer
the worship that God is worthy of. (Taken from: With Christ in the School of
Prayer by Andrew Murray). God, teach me that worship in spirit and truth
is not anything from man, but comes only from You. It is an outflowing of a life
in You. 

Romans  8:31 What  then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against  us?                            
                              
Are you faced with challenges in your life right now? Are you having  marital problems and financial woes? Maybe your child is going astray or an old  illness has returned. What then will you say to all these things?
Do you know what God wants you to say? He wants you to say, “If God is for  me, who can be against me?”
If you knew that the President or the Prime Minister was for you, you might  believe that everything will be okay. But you have an even better backing! The  Bible tells us that God, the Almighty, the Creator of the heavens and the earth,  is for you! What problem can fasten its grip on you when the Almighty God is for  you? Can the devil come successfully against you with God on your
side?
 If God is for you today, if God is for you right now, you don’t have to  moan, “If only I had this…If only I didn’t say that…” And you don’t have to  worry about the future: “What if this happens…What if we don’t have enough…” My  friend, regretting the past and worrying about the future won’t change anything.  Look to your heavenly Father, instead. Because He is for you at this present  moment, you can be confident that He will help you and provide for
you. 
 Beloved, God sent His Son to die for you. And Jesus gave you a blood-bought
right to an abundant life full of meaning and purpose! He gave you a
blood-bought right to walk in divine health all the days of your life! He gave
you a blood-bought right to His supply even when the economy goes
down!
You have all these things not because you deserve them, but because Jesus
shed His blood and gave you the right to have them. All these blessings are
yours today because God is for you! And if God is for you, who can be against
you!

“Be careful how you act; these are difficult days. Don’t be fools; be wise: make the most of every opportunity you have for doing good.” Ephesians 5:15-16 (LB)

Everyone has a dream. Maybe you’ve had it since you were a child. Maybe it came to you more recently. Desires, wishes, and ambitions should be a part of all of our lives. You may have hidden it deep inside of you, but you have a dream.

The question isn’t whether you have a dream. It’s “What are you doing with your dream?”

Most dreams never come true. It’s not that we’re not smart enough, not outgoing enough, or not spiritual enough. Usually, our dreams don’t come true because we’re unwilling to take the necessary risks to reach them.

The Bible shares a sad one-sentence commentary about a king who failed to achieve an important ambition in his life: “[King] Jehoshaphat built a fleet of trading ships to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail — they were wrecked at Ezion Geber” (1 Kings 22:48 NIV).

While it’s a tragedy for your ship to never come in in life, it’s a greater tragedy for you to build a ship and never set sail. Imagine the energy and expense expended by King Jehoshaphat. He built an entire fleet of ships to go after the gold, and not one of them set sail. They never got out of the harbor. Evidently a storm came up and, while these ships were in the harbor, they slammed against the rocks and were destroyed.

Some people spend their whole lives waiting for their ship to come. But God isn’t waiting for your ship to come in. He’s waiting for you to sail your ship out of the harbor.

I know a man who for 30 years had a dream of starting a ministry. He talked about it, dreamed about it, and planned it. He spent a great deal of time on this dream, but he never took the risk to do anything more about his dream. He never got his ship out of the harbor. Eventually, the man died — and so did his dream.

The Bible’s antidote to that kind of tragic procrastination is as simple as an overdone catchphrase but excruciatingly difficult to apply at times: Just do it. The Bible says, “Be careful how you act; these are difficult days. Don’t be fools; be wise: make the most of every opportunity you have for doing good” (Ephesians 5:15-16 LB).

The Bible urges us to seize the moment and act now. To live a life with unfulfilled dreams is a tragedy. Ships aren’t made for the harbor. They’re made to set sail.    

So are you ready to set sail?

Romans 12:9
'Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.'

- Here are some guidelines for a successful life.
- We should value  and appreciate others.
- We should take a stand against injustice and  wickedness.
- And we should hold onto what is good and that which pleases  God.

PRAYER: Lord, it is my desire to live a life that  honours You. May I be a 'God-pleaser' in the way I live my life today.  Amen.

Heavenly Father, we are often fooled into thinking that being
"remarkable" has something to do with recognition for a talent or a skill. We
think that it might be attached to those who we see on the big screen or those
who enter into politics. Help us to see that we are defined by the remarkable
things we do for You. 

We are Your children and we are remarkable each time we lift up
someone in need who walks beside us. We are remarkable each time we share Your
love with someone who was just waiting for us to open that door. 

Remind us, Lord, as we work through our endless chores that the
duties that occupy our time at home or at work or anywhere else can become
heavenly ones if we do them for You. We might just discover that what we have
done is simply remarkable because it is stamped with Your love and approval.
Bless each of us as we step out in the wisdom of love and genuine kindness to
create a brighter day for someone else. Help us to live for You today. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen.

 Read James 3:17

Dit is ʼn lieflike somer oggend. Ek draf vinnig by die
kwekery in om ʼn kliënt se vetplantbestelling op te laai. Die pragtige groen
spekboompies trek my aandag en ek fluit vir Hans om ʼn ekstra een te laai vir my
tuintjie. Later die middag is my spekboompie egter iets van die verlede. Een van
die werkers het die kan diesel agter op die trokkie oopgelos en die diesel het
bo-oor die spekboompie gespat. Sy blaartjies het reeds begin verkleur en die
grond is papnat van die diesel. Vies, sommer baie vies sit ek die vernielde
spekboompie agter die Wendy huis waar ek hom later sal weggooi.
Dis twee  weke later. Ek soek na die blou gieter, en loer agter die Wendy huis in. My mond
val oop. ʼn Klein stukkie van die dooie, diesel-deurdrenkte spekboompie het
oorleef! Ek tel die potjie op en kyk na die natuurwonder. Net een takkie van die
spekboompie het gras groen gebly en is besig om nuwe blaartjies te stoot. Ek vat
onmiddellik die snoeiskêr, knip die gesonde takkie af, maak ʼn pot vol kompos,
gooi ʼn miswurm en ʼn ekstra erdwurm in vir geluk en plant die takkie. As hierdie
plantjie so graag wil leef, verdien sy ekstra liefde en aandag.
Sommer so  op my knieë, voor die blompotjie dink ek aan al vriende, en mense wat my lewe
omring. Baie van ons oorleef ten spyte van die diesel wat soms op ons gemors  word. Ons klou vas, hou uit, stoot selfs nuwe blare in doodgaan tye. Al is die  grond waar ons geplant is dood en sonder enige waarde, bly ons groen en  lewendig, net soos hierdie spekboompie.
My gebed vir jou hierdie week -;  dat jy met jou oë op God gerig, sal vasbyt.
Jouself sal omvou in Sy liefde.

Sal aanhou dankbaar wees vir die son wat oor goed en sleg skyn.
Nooit  sal ophou bid en droom van ʼn uitplantdag in beter grond nie.
Ek weet God beplan vir elkeen van ons ʼn pot met vrugbare grond en ʼn ekstra erdwurm net vir
die liefde!

Let me say this right off the bat; There is only one way to God…it’s through our  Lord Jesus Christ. That is one of the least popular aspects of Christianity in our pluralistic society, for it’s not “politically correct”  to make dogmatic  statements. But Jesus said: “I am the way…no one
goes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6).
                
That’s pretty dogmatic and Peter added: “Nor is  there any salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given  among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
                 
Although there is only one way to the Father, there are many leading to Jesus  Christ. We don’t all approach Him under the same circumstances. Consider the  characters in the Gospels: Peter found Jesus by the seashore. Nicodemus came  under the cloak of darkness, the demonic was naked and frantic when Jesus saved  him; Matthew was in his tax both and Zacchaeus was up in a sycamore tree.
               
Think of the various ways in which people came to Christ in the book of Acts.  Three thousand were saved through peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost. Saul  of Tarsus was saved after being blinded and knocked to the ground. The Ethiopian  in Acts 8 was saved when Philip showed up in the desert just as he was puzzling  over the book of Isaiah 53. The Philippian jailer was saved during an earthquake, and a ship filled with terrified passengers became an evangelistic
arena for the apostle Paul in Acts 27.
                
Who or what led you to Christ? We all came to Him through one message (the
Gospel), by one mean (by grace through faith), but God draws us all differently.
In 2 Samuel 14:14, we read: “God…devises ways so that a banish person may not remain
estranged to Him.”


               
God devises ways to bring you in a position where you will have a chance to meet
with Jesus. Yes! Sometime in very unusual manner…but God is God and He knows
best, He knows how to reach each one of us in His own way…so that you may
choose.



“See, I set before you today
life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the
Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, decrees and
laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in
the land you are entering to possess.” (Deuteronomy 30:15-16)

 1  Corinthians 2:2 For  I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him  crucified.                             
The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Corinthian church, said that he determined to know nothing among them except “Jesus Christ and Him crucified”.  In other words, Paul, who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, had his mind full of Jesus and His finished work.Beloved, God wants your mind full of the cross of Jesus. He wants you  cross-conscious.
But what does it mean to be cross-conscious?
To be cross-conscious is to see Jesus, who loves you so much that He
willingly died for you on the cross. To be cross-conscious is to look to Jesus,
who offered His own body to be punished, so that your body can be free from all
punishment.
To be cross-conscious is to fix your eyes on Jesus, who has provided for
your deliverance and victory at the cross. At the cross, all your enemies were
vanquished. All your diseases were destroyed. Your poverty was removed at the
cross. Your sins were wiped out at the cross.
When the Israelites tasted bitterness in the waters of Marah, God showed
Moses a tree, which he cast into the waters, making them sweet. (Exodus 15:23–26) The tree represents the cross, which turned  the bitter waters sweet. Today, Calvary’s tree has turned your bitter situations  sweet. Because of the cross, you can expect to see the bitter situations in your
life made sweet!
When the Israelites were bitten by serpents in the wilderness, God told  Moses to put a bronze serpent on a pole. The pole represents the cross and  bronze speaks of judgment. Those who beheld the serpent on the pole lived  because they saw their problem—the deadly serpent—nailed and put to death on the  cross. (Numbers 21:6–9)
Today, you too will not die but live when you see all your sins judged at  the cross, and with them, all your sicknesses, diseases, pains, failures and  defeats! At the cross, all that is deadly in your life has been removed!

“You,  O God, sent a plentiful rain...” (Psalm 68:9, NKJV)
 
Every person goes through times of drought, or dry seasons, when we don’t see the changes we hoped for. We’ve got big dreams, we’re standing  on God’s promises, but things stay the same. It’s dry and barren. Maybe you are  blessed in one area and in a drought in another. It’s easy to think, “This is  the way it’s always going to be. I’ll always have this struggle.” No, in 2014  that drought is coming to an end. Any area of brokenness, dryness, loneliness,  every empty place, if you will stay in faith, God is going to rain down favor,  healing, and restoration.                   

We declare that this year, you are going to see an abundance of  rain! Every drought is only temporary. That dry season is not going to last  forever. Struggle and lack is not your destiny. It’s temporary. Rain is headed  your way! Declare it by faith, “Father, thank You that the drought is ending and  the rain is coming; and in 2014, I will see an abundance of Your goodness in my
life!”                               
 
Father,  thank You for Your refreshing rain on the dry places in my life. Thank You for
raining down provision, blessing, hope, wisdom, joy and peace. Give me strength
to stand strong in You as Your plan unfolds for my life in Jesus’ name.
Amen. 
—
Joel & Victoria Osteen