Archive for the ‘Encourgement’ Category


Sleepless nights

In one of our Bible Study’s, it was mentioned about a mother who could not sleep due to worrying about her daughter who is going through something. How many of us had that same issue of not sleeping behind worrying about someone else’s burden, or even your own? He is a piece of scripture that can help you find rest when issues are keeping you up all night.

Matthew 12:28-30 – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

A yoke is heavy wooden harness that fits over the shoulders of an ox or oxen. It is attached to a piece of equipment the oxen are to pull. A person may be carrying heavy burdens of (1) sin, (2) excessive demands of religious leaders (23:4 Acts 15:10), (3) oppression and persecution, or (4) weariness in the search for God.
Jesus frees people from all these burdens. The rest that Jesus promises is love, healing, and peace with God, not the end of all labor. A relationship with God changes meaningless, wearisome toil into spiritual productivity and purpose.

In what sense was Jesus yoke easy? The yoke emphasizes the challenges, work, and difficulties of partnering with Christ in life. Responsibilities weigh us down, even the effort of staying true to God. But Jesus yoke remains easy compared to the crushing alternative.
Jesus doesn’t offer a life of luxurious ease, the yoke is still an oxen’s tool for working hard. But it’s a shared yoke, with weight falling on bigger shoulders than yours. Someone with more pulling power is up front helping. Suddenly you are participating in life’s responsibilities with a great Partner and now that frown can turn into a smile, and that gripe into a song.

So the next time you run into a situation where you cannot find rest at night. Turn to this Scripture and Pray to the Lord Jesus Christ and asked him to take this burden from you so you can rest.


Under Gods Command

Proverbs 4:13-17

Hold on to instruction; do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life. Do not set foot on the path of the wicked, or walk in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not travel on it, turn from it and go on your way. For they cannot sleep till they do evil; they are robbed of slumber till they make someone fall. They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

Even friends can make you fall. It is difficult for people to accept the fact that friends and acquaintances might be luring them to do wrong. Young people who want to be accepted would never want to confront or criticize a friend for wrong plans or actions. Many other people can’t even see how their friend’s actions could lead to trouble. While we should be accepting of others, we need a healthy skepticism about human behavior. When you feel yourself being heavily influenced, proceed with caution. Don’t let your friends cause you to fall into sin.


Under Gods Command

Proverbs 3:3
Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

Love and faithfulness are important character qualities. Both involve actions as well as attitudes. A loving person not only feels love; he or she also acts loyally and responsibly. A faithful person not only believes the truth; he or she also works for justice for others. Thoughts and words are not enough. Our lives should reveal whether we are truly loving and faithful. We all should be asking ourselves, do our actions measure up to our attitudes?


Under Gods Command
(Love of Money)

1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

You’ve heard it said that money is the root of all evil, right? Wrong! Turn with me to one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible. Paul was addressing Timothy, as he was preparing him for public ministry. I will read it to you from the Amplifying Bible, Tim. 6: 10 “For the love of money (and all it buys) placed before the love of God (in reality) is the root of all kinds of evil.”
Did you catch that? Let me reread it. A clear distinction must be made between THE LOVE of money and money itself. Let this truth sink deep into your spirit. God is not anti-money, or anti-wealth, He is anti-money WORSHIP. He has helped us to identify that moneylove (worship) is the root of all kinds of evil.


Under Gods Command

Proverbs 2:9-10
Then you will understand what is right and just and fair-every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

We gain wisdom through a constant process of growing.
• First, we must thrust and honor God.
• Second, we must realize that the Bible reveals God’s wisdom to us.
• Third, we must make a life-long series of right choices and avoid moral pitfalls.
• Fourth, when we make sinful or mistaken choices, we must learn from our errors and recover. People don’t develop all aspects of wisdom at once. For example, some people have more insight than discretion; others have more knowledge than common sense. But we can pray for all aspects of wisdom and take the steps to develop them in our lives.


Under Gods Command
(Love of Money)

1 Timothy 6:06-09: (6) But godliness with contentment is great gain. (7) For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. (8) But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. (9) People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, most people still believe that money brings happiness. Rich people craving greater riches can be caught in an endless cycle that only ends in ruin and destruction. How can you keep away from the love of money? Paul gives us some guidelines:

1. Realize that one day riches will all be gone (6:7, 17)
2. Be content with what you have (6:8)
3. Monitor what you are willing to do to get more money (6:9,10)
4. Love people more than money (6:11)
5. Love God’s work more than money (6:11);
6. Freely share what you have with others (6:18)

It is often helpful to distinguish between needs and wants. We may have all we need to live but let ourselves become anxious and discontented over what we merely want. Like Paul, we can choose to be content without having all that we want. The only alternative is to be a slave to our desires.


This completes my mission on getting reacquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometime you just need to hear someones story a second and third time. You ever meet a friend, and after a while of knowing each other, he or she goes away for a few years. After a while you just remember the person and not his or her story any longer. That is what inspired me to study the book of John. Jesus is the one person, who’s story I don’t ever what to forget, and Joh makes it clear that Jesus is not just a man, he is the eternal Son of God. He is the light of the world because he offers this gift of eternal life to all people. How blind and foolish to call Jesus nothing more than an unusually good man or moral teacher. Yet we sometimes act as if this were true when we casually toss around his words and go about living our own way. If Jesus is the eternal Son of God, we should pay attention to his divine identity and life-giving message.

Today completes the book of John. Hope and pray that everyone grew Spiritually and was blessed by this Study.

Under Gods Command

John 21:25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

John’s stated purpose for writing his Gospel was to show that Jesus was the Son of God. He clearly and systematically presented the evidence for Jesus’ claims. When evidence is presented in the courtroom, those who hear it must also make a choice-is Jesus the Son of God, or isn’t he? You are the jury. The evidence has been clearly presented. You must decide. Read John’s Gospel and believe!


Under Gods Command

Proverbs 30:07-09 “Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die:  Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.  Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. 

 How wise and prudent are you? Do you fear wealth as much as poverty? Do you know that financial success is a vain lie? Here are two of the most important prayer requests you can ever pray! Agur gave inspired instruction to his two students about the danger and deception of money and riches, and your future success and tranquility depends on it.

Agur had a great desire for two petitions (30-7). He knew the dangerous consequences of not obtaining them (30-9). He understood the deceitful and damning nature of both financial success and poverty, so he begged God to deliver him from the arrogance of being rich and from the temptations of being poor. He begged for a moderate income.

Agur prayed for two things: (1) to be saved from vanity and lies, and (2) to obtain only moderate success in life, avoiding both poverty and riches. What vanity and lies are under view? The vanity and lies of riches and success! How so? Let the connection, context, and Bible drive the interpretation (1 Cor 2:13)), since there is no hint at lies of false religion, evolution, false gods, a cheating spouse, hypocrites, perjurers, or other such lies.

Think honestly and wisely about money! It does not satisfy, even when you get lots of it; this is vanity)! It disappears quickly! It corrupts morals! You cannot take it with you. It chokes out and destroys fruitfulness. What vanity! Are you wise enough to believe these warnings and pray against wealth?

A wise man prays for a moderate income and estate, so he can avoid the temptations to sin on either end of the financial spectrum (30-9). He prays for contentment, and he learns contentment, knowing it is the true measure of success. A wise man maximizes life by walking with God, regardless of assets or enemies.

Reader! This advice is only in the Bible! The fools around you adore riches! They have sacrificed their lives to vanity and lies! Add these two prudent requests to your prayers!


Under Gods Command

Proverbs 29:1- A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes, will suddenly be destroyed-with remedy.

Warnings rarely come with countdowns. We can’t tell when we’ve had our last chance to change. When we, like the person in this proverb, refuse to consider valid criticism, we leave
our selves open to sudden disaster. The moment we realize that a change is necessary is the best moment to take action. What significant adjustments have been on hold in your life for too long?


Under Gods Command
Jesus Challenges Peter

John 21:20-23 Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him!” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”

Peter asked Jesus how John would die. Jesus replied that Peter should not concern himself with that. We tend to compare our lives to others, whether to rationalize our own level of devotion to Christ or to question God’s justice. Jesus responds to us as he did to Peter: “What is that to you? You must follow me.”