- Who Is Your GOD?

Oct 31,2008
Friday

READ:
Deuteronomy 6:1-6

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You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
-Deuteronomy 6:5

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At a funeral, I once overheard someone say of the deceased,"He was close to his god. He's safe now."

At times like that, I wish it were true that everyone could have their own god,live in whatever way they wanted, also be assured of eternal life in heaven. Then we wouldn't have to think too seriously about death. We wouldn't have to be concerned about where our unbelieving loved ones went when they died.

But Scriptures say that there is only one true God. " The LORD our God, the LORD is one!" (Deut. 6:4).And He is holy (Lev. 19:2). He says that we don't measure up to His standard for a relationship with Him. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"(Rom. 3:23). Our sin has alienated us from Him.

In love, the heavenly Father provided the way to Himself through His perfect Son Jesus who died to pay the penalty for our sin. "For God loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life"(John 3:16). But we need to humble our hearts and receive His gift of forgiveness.

There is only one true God. He is holy and has provided the only way of eternal life through Jesus. Is He the God you are trusting in? Think about it - seriously. - Anne Cetas

There is a place reserved in heaven
For everyone who has received
Forgiveness and eternal life
From Christ, in whom they have believed. -Sper

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To get into heaven, it's who you know that counts.

- The Ripening Self

Oct 26,2008
Sunday

READ:
1 Peter 5:8-11

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May the God of all grace,...after you have suffered
a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
-1 Peter 5:10

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In his early years of ministry, the English Preacher Charles Simeon (1759-1836) was a harsh and self-assertive man. One day he was visiting a friend and fellow pastor in a nearby village. When he left to go home, his friend's daughters complained to her father about Simeone's manner. So he took the girls to the backyard and said, "Pick me one of the peaches." It was warmly summer, and the peaches were green. The girls asked why he anted green. unripe fruit. He replied,"Well my dears, it is green now, and we must wait; but a little more sun, and a few more showers, and the peach will be ripe and sweet. So it is with Mr.Simeone."

Simeone, in due time, did change. The warmth of God's love and the "showers" of misunderstanding and disappointment were the means by which he became a gentle, humble man.

The God of all grace works in all His children, humbling the proud and exalting the humble, to make them ripe and sweet. Our task is to take hold of God's grace to endure our afflictions with patience, without growing weary.

In time, He will "perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle" us(1 Peter 5:10). We must "wait on the LORD" and "be of good courage" (Ps. 27:14). -David Roper

Our fruitfulness and growth in Christ
Wont's happen instantly,
But meditating on God's Word
Will bring maturity. -Sper

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Salvation is the miracle of a moment:
growth is the labor of a lifetime.