Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.-Matt 10:29-31 (NKJV)
As I turned the corner of the skate room at work, I gazed up at a pile of old torn apart skates. I had been assigned to repair every skate that was stacked on two shopping carts that stretched to the ceiling. Some had broken axles, some with torn shoe laces. And yet others that just needed a complete and total make over.
Not knowing were to start, I grabbed the one on top. As I sat it down on the counter, I could have cried when I saw all that had to be done just to get this poor little skate back in working order. I started to wonder if it was even worth all the trouble. This skate was trashed. But, I started with the toe stopper and put a new sole and shoe lace on, and it started to look better. Then new wheels and bearings, then a half hour later....the once ragged skate looked shiny and new. I took it for a test spin around the floor, and you could see the proud look on my face from the other end of the rink as I skated back to the front with my new found friend.
Some of you may feel like your in that shopping cart today. Maybe you feel that you have been out of working order with the Lord for to long and there is no way to get back to Him. But, then our Father picks us up and sets us on the counter. He starts to cry as He looks at His pride and joy in pieces. But instead of throwing us away. He starts to work on us. Taking one thing at a time till we get back on the floor again.
Friends, don't ever think that you've gone to far, or that you've become so messed up that even the Lord can't put you back together. If we will just come to Him and ask for help, and forgiveness then He can mold us in His image. By walking beside Him daily, you can start to see Jesus in you, and so will others. If you haven't excepted Jesus, then do it today. Ask Him to come into your heart, and to forgive you for your sins. Maybe today you think that you have back slid to far, you want the peace and the love that only Jesus can give. Well, rededicate your life. Just ask the Lord to forgive you and to make you strong and put your life back together. There isn't a thing that the Lord will not fix if you just let Him. May peace be with you.
Your Brother in Christ,
Tony Rhoda
(www.tddm.org)
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Prayer
In Luke 11:1, one of Jesus' disciples said, "Lord, teach us to pray." It was obvious that Jesus' strength came from His time in prayer.
What is prayer?
Basically, prayer is communication between you and God. "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know." (Jeremiah 33:3)
Just try to think of trying to cope with your problems if there was no way to communicate with God. Remember that God created us for fellowship with Him. He desires that we learn to spend time with Him in prayer.
Why Do People Fail to Pray?
We often convince ourselves that we can make it without prayer.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding: in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6
How to Pray
Be real; be yourself. You must be honest, genuine, open with God. "Who may stand before the Lord? Only those who do not practice dishonesty and lying." Psalm 24:3-4
Come before God as a child. "The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven is the one who humbles himself and becomes like this child." Matthew 18:4
Talk to God as you would a friend. "Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend." Exodus 33:11
Pray without ceasing. "Pray at all times." 1 Thes. 5:17
Pray with persistence. "Pray and never give up." Luke 18:1
Pray believing. ".... all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you." Mark 11:24
Prayers must be specific. Pray generally -- you'll never know. Pray specifically -- you'll see God at work.
God always answers prayer, in His time.
God sometimes says, "No."
God sometimes says, "Wait."
God sometimes says, "Yes," and can even say "Yes" but in a different way than you expected. Usually when you seek God, and you are praying according to His will, He will answer your prayer far beyond what you could ever dream.
Pray with action.
A prayer can never take the place of action. Like love, it must be expressed in action and not merely words. "Be ye doers of the word." James 1:22
Don't just pray:
"Dear God, please help John today. I know that he is having a problem and needs Your help."
Example of how to pray:
"Dear God, I really hurt for John. I want Your will for his life to be accomplished today. If there is any way that You can use me, I am available. Please make me sensitive to any doors that You might open to use me in his life today." Be specific for his needs according to God's will and for your needs in this request as well.
Elements of a Prayer
Remember A-C-T-S.
A - Adoration is praising God for who He is. This can be done by reading scriptures of praise or through music.
C - Confession is agreeing with God about your sin. True confession always includes repentance, which is a change in your life. Confession is important for spiritual growth.
T - Thanksgiving is thanking God for what He has done.
S - Supplication means requests. These are the things that you ask God for. There are two categories.
1. Petition is praying for our own needs. We pray when we are in a bind. We pray for our daily needs. We need to pray for character development, physical abilities and material needs.
2. Intercession is praying for others, for salvation as well as areas listed above. "...far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you." 1 Samuel 12:23
(www.tddm.org)
What is prayer?
Basically, prayer is communication between you and God. "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know." (Jeremiah 33:3)
Just try to think of trying to cope with your problems if there was no way to communicate with God. Remember that God created us for fellowship with Him. He desires that we learn to spend time with Him in prayer.
Why Do People Fail to Pray?
We often convince ourselves that we can make it without prayer.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding: in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6
How to Pray
Be real; be yourself. You must be honest, genuine, open with God. "Who may stand before the Lord? Only those who do not practice dishonesty and lying." Psalm 24:3-4
Come before God as a child. "The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven is the one who humbles himself and becomes like this child." Matthew 18:4
Talk to God as you would a friend. "Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend." Exodus 33:11
Pray without ceasing. "Pray at all times." 1 Thes. 5:17
Pray with persistence. "Pray and never give up." Luke 18:1
Pray believing. ".... all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you." Mark 11:24
Prayers must be specific. Pray generally -- you'll never know. Pray specifically -- you'll see God at work.
God always answers prayer, in His time.
God sometimes says, "No."
God sometimes says, "Wait."
God sometimes says, "Yes," and can even say "Yes" but in a different way than you expected. Usually when you seek God, and you are praying according to His will, He will answer your prayer far beyond what you could ever dream.
Pray with action.
A prayer can never take the place of action. Like love, it must be expressed in action and not merely words. "Be ye doers of the word." James 1:22
Don't just pray:
"Dear God, please help John today. I know that he is having a problem and needs Your help."
Example of how to pray:
"Dear God, I really hurt for John. I want Your will for his life to be accomplished today. If there is any way that You can use me, I am available. Please make me sensitive to any doors that You might open to use me in his life today." Be specific for his needs according to God's will and for your needs in this request as well.
Elements of a Prayer
Remember A-C-T-S.
A - Adoration is praising God for who He is. This can be done by reading scriptures of praise or through music.
C - Confession is agreeing with God about your sin. True confession always includes repentance, which is a change in your life. Confession is important for spiritual growth.
T - Thanksgiving is thanking God for what He has done.
S - Supplication means requests. These are the things that you ask God for. There are two categories.
1. Petition is praying for our own needs. We pray when we are in a bind. We pray for our daily needs. We need to pray for character development, physical abilities and material needs.
2. Intercession is praying for others, for salvation as well as areas listed above. "...far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you." 1 Samuel 12:23
(www.tddm.org)
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Blood of Whiteout
The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7) NKJV.
"How can I ever become a Christian after all that I have done? I mean, I have gone way too far this time. There is no way I can get into heaven now." Have you ever asked yourself these questions, or maybe heard them from a friend? Not one of us can avoid sin as it constantly hunts us down; but let us rest assured that we have one awesome Jesus who can forgive and cleanse our lives of everything we have done. So when we get to heaven, we will stand in front of our Father with a clean slate.
Every day as we wake up to a new dawn, another piece of paper is added to our book of life. You carefully write down every little detail with each and every move you make. Nothing is left out, not the day you kindly gave a dollar to a friend in need, nor the time you carefully stole the dessert off of your friend's lunch tray. Each day your page comes to an end as you fall asleep, and the pages are turned as they wait for the first rays of the morning sun to add another. We all have some points in our lives in which we know that God was looking down on us and smiling; but more than that, we feel that we let Him down, as another sin is added to the text.
When the last second of our lives tick, we will enter judgement, the time when our term paper called life will be turned in. As you walk up to the desk and hand your work over to our Great Teacher, there is no doubt in your mind that you have failed. For even one sin is too many to get us into Heaven. As we hold our heads down in shame awaiting the call for Hell, Jesus walks up. He kindly whispers to His Father, "Dad, hold on a second. I'm sorry to interrupt You but, You see, I promised him that I would edit his paper before it was turned in." Then our loving Lord hands Jesus your rough draft, and with His precious blood, turns our mess of scribble full of sin into an errorless masterpiece.
Brothers and sisters, rejoice, for we have the best Friend in the universe that will make sure we pass the test of life if we will only ask Him to edit it. There is no doubt that each one of us deserves Hell. We all deserve to die for the horrible lives we live on earth, but then Jesus walks up and hands the final draft to our Teacher. He pulls His red pen out and starts to grade. You sit there waiting the inevitable fate, then He looks up and smiles, marks down and A, and answers, "Well done good and faithful one, welcome home." May peace be with you.
Your Brother in Christ,
Tony Rhoda
(www.ttdm.org)
"How can I ever become a Christian after all that I have done? I mean, I have gone way too far this time. There is no way I can get into heaven now." Have you ever asked yourself these questions, or maybe heard them from a friend? Not one of us can avoid sin as it constantly hunts us down; but let us rest assured that we have one awesome Jesus who can forgive and cleanse our lives of everything we have done. So when we get to heaven, we will stand in front of our Father with a clean slate.
Every day as we wake up to a new dawn, another piece of paper is added to our book of life. You carefully write down every little detail with each and every move you make. Nothing is left out, not the day you kindly gave a dollar to a friend in need, nor the time you carefully stole the dessert off of your friend's lunch tray. Each day your page comes to an end as you fall asleep, and the pages are turned as they wait for the first rays of the morning sun to add another. We all have some points in our lives in which we know that God was looking down on us and smiling; but more than that, we feel that we let Him down, as another sin is added to the text.
When the last second of our lives tick, we will enter judgement, the time when our term paper called life will be turned in. As you walk up to the desk and hand your work over to our Great Teacher, there is no doubt in your mind that you have failed. For even one sin is too many to get us into Heaven. As we hold our heads down in shame awaiting the call for Hell, Jesus walks up. He kindly whispers to His Father, "Dad, hold on a second. I'm sorry to interrupt You but, You see, I promised him that I would edit his paper before it was turned in." Then our loving Lord hands Jesus your rough draft, and with His precious blood, turns our mess of scribble full of sin into an errorless masterpiece.
Brothers and sisters, rejoice, for we have the best Friend in the universe that will make sure we pass the test of life if we will only ask Him to edit it. There is no doubt that each one of us deserves Hell. We all deserve to die for the horrible lives we live on earth, but then Jesus walks up and hands the final draft to our Teacher. He pulls His red pen out and starts to grade. You sit there waiting the inevitable fate, then He looks up and smiles, marks down and A, and answers, "Well done good and faithful one, welcome home." May peace be with you.
Your Brother in Christ,
Tony Rhoda
(www.ttdm.org)
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Devoted 131
Cutting My Own Hair
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. -2 Timothy 3:14-17
I woke up this morning after having the craziest dream. I dreamt that part of my hair accidentally got cut and I had to cut the rest of it to make it to look good. In my dream, I spent a lot of time trying to find a trimmer. After I found the trimmer, I did cut my own hair, but I missed all kinds of places and it ended up looking terrible. At that point, my wife called and said she was on the way home. It looked like everything was headed for complete disaster. All of a sudden, I woke up and was very happy to learn my hair was still intact and even.
There are some things that we shouldn't do on our own- like cutting our hair. Things like that are best left to the people who know how to do that stuff. But reading and growing in the Bible is not one of those things. We should be spending time alone in the scriptures reading, studying, and feeding ourselves. At first it can seem strange and a little awkward, but the more you do it, the more you get out of it.
We can't survive by living only on the spiritual food we get from church services on Sunday and Wednesday. If we only ate physical food twice a week, we wouldn't be able to accomplish much. The same is true with scripture. Spiritually feed yourself all week, and then you will feast during the worship services. You'll find that you will be able to accomplish a lot more than you knew possible.
-Steve
(www.tddm.org)
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. -2 Timothy 3:14-17
I woke up this morning after having the craziest dream. I dreamt that part of my hair accidentally got cut and I had to cut the rest of it to make it to look good. In my dream, I spent a lot of time trying to find a trimmer. After I found the trimmer, I did cut my own hair, but I missed all kinds of places and it ended up looking terrible. At that point, my wife called and said she was on the way home. It looked like everything was headed for complete disaster. All of a sudden, I woke up and was very happy to learn my hair was still intact and even.
There are some things that we shouldn't do on our own- like cutting our hair. Things like that are best left to the people who know how to do that stuff. But reading and growing in the Bible is not one of those things. We should be spending time alone in the scriptures reading, studying, and feeding ourselves. At first it can seem strange and a little awkward, but the more you do it, the more you get out of it.
We can't survive by living only on the spiritual food we get from church services on Sunday and Wednesday. If we only ate physical food twice a week, we wouldn't be able to accomplish much. The same is true with scripture. Spiritually feed yourself all week, and then you will feast during the worship services. You'll find that you will be able to accomplish a lot more than you knew possible.
-Steve
(www.tddm.org)
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