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"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:"
(1 Peter 2:2 KJV) "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." (2 Peter 3:18 KJV) We would all like to enrich our lives while improving ourselves and the lives of those around us. We need to know which things we are doing for Our Awesome God and for ourselves. This is not so easily done, but one way to start is to know what you are doing daily and insert changes with improvements as needed to be sure it is for God's glory. With this in mind, just take a week (last week) and write down what you did from Sunday through Saturday with the start of your day (time), what you did after you got up, got a drink, took a shower, had breakfast, etc. for the whole day including what time to bed that night. Do it for the full week on your computer, an old unused calendar or a pad of paper, leaving space for additions between the lines. Go through your list one item at a time and decide if it is for yourself or does it glorify God, or both; or is it something that leads you away from God. Put it somewhere that you can easily add or remove an activity, but get it down so you can tell what your usual routine is. Maybe it includes school, work, home or retirement activities, etc. Anything that leads you away from God should be eliminated first. Replace it with God glorifying activities. Then consider putting other improvements into your daily activities that you aren't doing now and that glorify Our Awesome God. The schedule replacements and improvements might include things such as, spend time praying in the morning and evening, read the Bible for 1/2 hour daily or every other day, finding time and a Bible Study group to attend, go to Church on Wednesday evening, learning to pause when you are tense and talk to God, etc. The improvements may include anything that increases your growth and maturity in Christ. Then take a new paper or calendar, or update your computer to make a new calendar of daily activities that includes the improvements as well as your daily activities. Now you may need to take some activities off your list or rearrange your present calendar in some way but be sure there are more activities to include God. If necessary, change several days to get the new activity in, but get it in! Make a fresh paper copy and use it to keep you on the new schedule. You will gain in Christian maturity as you regularly spend more time with Our Awesome God. Start your new schedule as soon as you can so it can become a habit in 2017. Our church is a loving church that wants to help others to a better understanding of Our Awesome God and His love, mercy and grace for all of mankind. Join us at Living Word Baptist Church as we love others while preaching and teaching from our Holy Bible about God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Our church has a Bible Study at 9:30 AM on Sunday and Worship Service at 10:30 AM and then at 6:00 PM there is another Bible Study that meets for an hour with a children's program called AWANA running until 7:30 PM. (September through May). On Wednesdays, we meet at 7:00 PM for Prayer Requests and Bible Study along with a separate Spanish Bible Study until 8:00 PM. We love visitors!
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"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."
(Psalms 27:14 KJV) "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." (Jeremiah 33:3 KJV) Life is full of decisions we must make. Our Awesome God has promised to help us make wise decisions. He wants us to ask Him, being as detailed as we can, while letting Him make the final decision. If you don't intend to follow God's advice, don't ask Him, because He will know you won't do as He advises. It is always a good idea to find what the Bible says on your subject. You need to see how God usually answers a request such as yours. Pray about it! Then prepare yourself because Our Awesome God wants you to ask so He can answer. There are several things to do: 1) Confess all your sins you haven't already asked God to forgive (1 John 1:9), 2) submit yourself to His decision (1 Peter 5:6), 3) believe that God will give you your request (Mark 11: 22), 4) Ask according to His will for your request to be done (1 John 5:14-15) and then 5) wait for His answer, it will come but we don't know when. Be sure to thank Him and praise Him for His answer! Our Awesome God wants to guide you through the snares of life on earth. That is why He put you here. God put that snare there or allowed it to be there for a purpose, to help you. When God answers, you should feel great peace and confidence in knowing God is guiding you. It is possible that no one else will agree with your decision but, if you did what God told you - what does it matter what others think? If He says it, do it, just be sure He answered and it is not your own wants. God knows what will work best. The ultimate purpose we should be seeking is Our Awesome God guiding us in every decision we make for all eternity. We need His wisdom, His knowledge, His mercy for all, His grace, His patience, His faithfulness and His love. When we get His guidance, we know we are doing what He wants and that He will have the correct way for us to go. Praise Him and thank Him! LWBC is a loving, church who tries to live by Biblical principles while encouraging all its members. Join us for church in the Sanctuary this coming Sunday at 10:30 AM. We also have Bible Study on Sunday at 9:30 AM and Sunday evening at 6:00 PM with a children's program called AWANA until 7:30 PM. (September through May). On Wednesdays, we meet at 7:00 PM for Prayer Meeting and Bible Study along with a separate Spanish Bible Study until 8:00 PM. We love visitors! "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."
(Psalms 16:11 KJV) Sometimes we get so immersed in the problems around us that we forget that deep joy we have felt when Our Awesome God was near and we felt at complete peace with everything around us as we talked to Him. This is that deep joy that you get when talking to our Lord and Savior. It is a peaceful joy that we can feel when we have trusted God to take all our problems. Because you often feel that He is life since our thoughts are washed in His thoughts and our wills are strengthened by His will. We say we will never let this feeling get away from us but it does. When this marvelous joy starts leaving us, and it does start when we turn to the world and leave His presence, we need to schedule our next talk with our Lord and keep it. We need to talk quietly with Him all day as He helps us with our problems and the problems of others around us. But when bedtime comes, our visit with Our Awesome God needs to happen to keep that joy in our hearts. Often we are tired and we just crawl into bed and pull the covers up, forgetting to pray before we sleep. We miss out on one of the greatest ways to relax when we don't tell God our problems and pray at the end of a day. It becomes the norm to smile most of the day when you have the joy of the Lord in you, to hug those close to you, to clap your hands and sing to the Lord. Our "first love" is there with that deep peace that keeps you wanting to spend more time with Him. But you need quiet, time to pray, to focus on Our Awesome God and to leave this world briefly in order to get that joy back. You will be a happier person and so will those around you when you can feel Him helping you with words and giving you ideas to help others. PRAY until it returns! Singing songs of praise and joy to Our Awesome God helps us continue to feel this joy longer whether we sing or we listen to the song. Reading His Bible and things He has done for others makes the joy and peace linger longer in your heart and mind. You may have other methods that you use. LWBC is a Bible believing church that tries to live Jesus Christ's commandment to "love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12 KJV) Join us this Sunday as we learn more about Our Awesome God and how to teach others from His Holy Bible. Join us at Living Word Baptist Church as we have Bible Study at 9:30 AM then pray and worship Him this Sunday at 10:30 AM. Then at 6:00 PM we start an hour of Bible Study along with AWANA for children until 7:30 PM (September through May). On Wednesdays, we meet at 7:00 PM for Prayer Requests and a Bible Study along with a separate Spanish Bible Study until 8:00 PM. We love visitors! "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is... Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name."
(Psalms 63:1, 4 KJV) How do you praise the Lord? How often do you praise the Lord? Do you lift your arms toward heaven to praise the Lord? Praising the Lord, Our Awesome God, means you are praying (talking) to Him and it seems a natural thing to praise Him at times and to lift your arms toward heaven. When we do this, it is a sign of our reverence, our adoration and our surrender to God. The lifting of arms toward heaven was used in some of the sacrifices the Israelites offered to God such as the one David writes about in Psalms 141:2. You know by this act of lifting your arms, you are surrendering to Our Awesome God and giving Him your trust. He will take control and things will proceed as God knows they should. And you, you will feel a deep peace because it is no longer a problem that you are trying to control; it is God's to do His way. But God wants you to tell Him that you want help. That you trust Him! So lift up those arms and praise Him. Tell Him how wonderful He is. He is AWESOME and you'll love the results! Occasionally there are some people in a church who have never lifted their arms, never put their total trust in Our Awesome God and never just worshipped Him by surrendering it all to Him. These people can get a little emotional, especially the first time they release all those emotions they have harbored for years and give control into God's Hands. Love these people! They are our Lord's children and our siblings. Praise our God any way you want because He will know what you are feeling and what you are expressing. Amen! You can never praise Our Awesome God too much. Think of all He has done from creating you, to forgiving you, to sending Jesus Christ to be a sacrifice for your sins and then adopting you into His Family when you become a Christian. He wants only the best for you. Praise His Holy Name! LWBC is a Bible believing church that tries to live Jesus Christ's commandment to "love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12 KJV) Join us this Sunday as we learn more about Our Awesome God and how to teach others from His Holy Bible. Our church starts with small groups on Sunday at 9:30 AM and Worship Service at 10:30 AM. On Sunday evening at 6:00 PM, a Bible Study meets for an hour with a children's program called AWANA until 7:30 PM. (September through May). On Wednesdays, we meet at 7:00 PM for Prayer Requests and Bible Study along with a separate Spanish Bible Study until 8:00 PM. We love visitors! Praise Lord! "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."
(Philippians 4:6 KJV) "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16 KJV) There is a time that comes to you when you are praying. It comes to all who pray believing and trusting Our Awesome God and it is called a turning point in prayer. It is a time when we are willing to do or accept God's will instead of our own. Usually the prayers that you are most personally and passionately involved with are the hardest to turn over to Him and allow Him to do what is best for all involved. This is true even when you believe He knows best, because it often can be agonizing to know that by telling Him to do His will, the answer may mean your loved one goes to heaven. We need to remember that Jesus Christ knew what would happen before and during His time on the cross and yet He said, "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." (John 6:38 KJV) Yes, He knew what was going to happen and how He would die in pain and humiliation. And He knew what God wanted and why. He did God's will! Shall we do less? We must realize that, as Our Awesome God knew what was best for His Son, He knows what is best for each person we pray for. He is trustworthy and loving. He wants what is best for His created and adopted children. He taught us faith and love and grace so we know He is pure. God will always do what is beneficial for us, though it may not seem so at the time to us. He can see the whole plan and how it all fits together. He will always love you! God wants you helping Him to tell others about what He has done for you and can do for them. Come join us as we learn more about Our Awesome God and His Son, Jesus Christ and then put it into action in our community. At our church we believe that Jesus Christ died for you, taking your sins upon Himself and arose the third day to sit by God, interceding for you when you sin. He can be found at our church. Join us at Living Word Baptist Church as we pray and worship Him this Sunday at 9:30 AM for Bible Study and 10:30 AM for worship Service. Sunday evening at 6:00 PM for Bible Study along with a children's program called AWANA which goes until 7:30 PM (September through May). On Wednesdays, we meet at 7:00 PM for Prayer Requests and prayer with a Bible Study along with a separate Spanish Bible Study until 8:00 PM. We appreciate visitors! "Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy... Our soul waiteth for the Lord : he is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name."
(Psalms 33:18, 20-21 KJV) We are never out of Our Awesome God's sight! He knows where we are and what we are doing. We often think about this when we are sinning (Him watching) but what about when danger is near. It should be comforting to remember that He is with you and watching you. That nothing will happen that He won't use for your good. Our Awesome God has plans and a purpose for you if you are His child. The promise expressed in the Psalm above by David applies to us wherever we go. Whatever confronts us, "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry" (Psalm 34:15 KJV). One of the wonderful joys of being a Christian is knowing that Our Awesome God in heaven is always watching over us and ready to intervene. Sometimes we feel that the experience we have is devastating to us, but it may be that it is the only thing that will make us stop and evaluate our lives, or possibly it was needed to help someone else. It is the best thing that will cause us to change to what needs to be done. If you need to change a habit, stop and get help from a Christian pastor who has been trained as a councilor and get into a Celebrate Recovery group in a local Christian church. This group is there for all who need help in changing a habit. Call our office for help from our pastor but get help. We always have Our Awesome God watching us, and ready to intervene with help if we pray. He will help but He always wants you to ask. Verbalizing your need clarifies it in your mind and makes you realize that you are asking, for His help as you should. He is a loving parent, always watching over His adopted sons and daughters. Our Awesome God watches all that happens, the good as well as the evil, and knows what the consequences will be. You can be sure that nothing happens that He does not know about because the "eyes of the Lord" are on it. Remember consequences can be and are used for good for some if not all. LWBC is a loving church who tries to live by Biblical principles while encouraging all its members. Join us for church this coming Sunday at 9:30 AM for Bible Study. We have Worship Service in the Sanctuary at 10:30 AM and Sunday evening Bible Study from 6:00 to 7:00 PM along with AWANA for children lasting until 7:30 PM. Our programs are varied but we teach and preach from Our Awesome God's Holy Bible that Jesus Christ died for you. |
Flo & BillArchives
December 2016
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