Gems of Encouragement: August 3, 2013

GEMS OF ENCOURAGEMENT FOR SATURDAY AUGUST 3, 2013

PROVERB:

A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor. Proverbs 29:23

PROMISE:

Love the Lord, all His saints! The Lord preserves the faithful, but the proud He pays back in full. Psalm 31:23

PRAISE:

O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven or on earth. You who keep Your covenant of love with Your servants who continue wholeheartedly in Your way. II Chronicles 6:14

Submission: August 2, 2013

TODAY’S WORD FOR FRIDAY AUGUST 2, 2013.

SUBMISSION

DEFINITION:  

To give over or yield to the power or authority of another; yielding; obedient.

SCRIPTURE:

Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men. I Peter 2:13.

Wives, submit to your husband’s as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh to them. Colossians 3:18-19

You younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another. I Peter 5:5.

One who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. I Timothy 3:4.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

We are living in a day and age when one uses the word "submission" they will get in return a strange look or even a sneering remark. Many are saying that we are living in "the ME generation." This is when a person lives for "me" only and for no one else. To these people the word or thought of submission is not in their vocabulary. As you can see in the four verses we have listed above, the Bible has a lot to say about God's requirement for us concerning being submissive.

We all have a mind of our own and a desire to do things our way and in our own timing. Our natural tendency is not to want to be submissive. This is nothing new. It goes back to the Garden of Eden. First Eve, then Adam, rebelled against submitting to God's command not to eat the forbidden fruit. That was when trouble began.

As new parents we were amazed at how soon our sweet little bundle of joy developed a mind of his or her own and had no desire to submit to our will. You just get to sleep and your child is wide awake demanding attention and just wants to play. You know whose will wins out. That is only the beginning. They only get more demanding as they grow up so it is soon quite evident they have a lot to learn about submission. Parents need to start training their children at a very early age the meaning of submission and what God requires of us as believers concerning being submissive.

Submission to God is necessary to prevent discord and chaos. The Bible teaches that we are to be submissive, first of all to God, and obey His commandments. The tragic actions of Adam and Eve and the consequences that resulted from them are evidence of the importance of being submissive to God. Jesus set the example for us by submitting to the will of the Father and was "obedient to death, even death on the cross." (Philippians 2:9). How can we do any less then to submit ourselves to God, the Father, our Lord and creator. 

The Bible teaches that we are to be submissive in our marriage. Colossians 3:18 instructs us that wives should submit to their husbands as to the Lord. In this day of "women's lib" this is not a popular concept. Nevertheless, it is what God says. It is not popular because it has been misinterpreted and misused as giving the husband unlimited authority. They forget that the Lord commands husbands how to love and treat their wives.

The Bible's teaching on marriage relationships requires the man to be the spiritual leader of the family and the wife is to acknowledge his leadership role. A loving and caring husband will not take advantage of his leadership role and be a demanding tyrant. Likewise, a wife who loves and cares for her husband will not undermine her husband's leadership. There must be a mutual submission between husband and wife, with each striving to be a true help-mate. Submission is what brings harmony and unity in a marriage. There has to be a lot of give and take in a marriage.

In Ephesians, the apostle Paul tells us that children should obey their parents. This is being submissive to their parents and parents need to teach their children to be submissive in both their words and their actions. In I Timothy 3:4, Paul also reminds us that God requires us as parents to be overseerers of our children, "One who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence."

Peter tells us in I Peter 5:5, "Likewise you younger people submit to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

The Bible also tells us that we must be submissive to those in authority over us. Peter tells us to submit to those who have a legitimate authority over us for the Lord's sake. It honors the Lord when we are law abiding and obedient to those in authority over us. The only exception is that if obedience to an authority would cause us to be disobedient to God.

As parents, we must teach our children to be submissive not only to us as parents, but to their teachers and others who have authority over them.

In today's society we have rebelled against being submissive to anyone except "me." It is time that we as believers begin anew to be submissive first to God, then to our spouses, children, parents, family, leaders and the result will be that God will bless us.  

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Philippians 1:21.

For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

PRAYER:

Help me to control my desire to have things my way and give me a willingness to be submissive. Help me to be submissive, first of all, to You and secondly to my spouse. Guide us as we teach our children to be submissive. May others see Christ in us as they see our submission to our Lord.

Worship: August 1, 2013

TODAY’S WORD FOR THURSDAY AUGUST 1, 2013.

WORSHIP

DEFINITION: 

Reverent honor and homage paid to God; formal or ceremonious rendering of such honor; adoring, reverence or regard.

SCRIPTURE:

Because He is your Lord, worship Him. Psalm 45:11.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker. Psalm 95:6    

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Worship is our way to show that we honor and reverence God. He is all powerful and all knowing but more than that He is a loving and just God. He loved us so much that He was not willing for us to die in our sins so He sent His only Son to suffer and die for our sins. Because of this alone, He deserves our worship.

We worship the Lord with praise and thanksgiving for who He is and for the salvation He provided for us through Jesus Christ. We also worship Him for all the blessings He has given to us. James reminds us that every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from our father in heaven (James 1:17.) We have an awesome God, how can we not worship Him?

We have been in Kenya several times representing our ministry, World Opportunities International. One of the highlights of each trip was visiting some of the 75 churches we sponsored. We learned from them what true worship was all about. These dear people filled their churches to capacity every time the doors were opened. Most of them walked for miles to get to their church. They had no cars or bicycles and could not afford any city buses that may have been available. When every seat was full and the walls were lined with people inside, many were standing outside looking in through the open windows. We never have heard such singing. Their singing really came from the heart. They would sit or stand for hours taking in every word that was being preached.

And when the offering was taken we learned so much about worship through their giving. They worshipped God in the offering with a tithe of what God had given them. We saw chickens, vegetables and even clothes being given. They gave sacrificially from what God had blessed them with.

Many times we have compared the worship of these dear Kenyans with the church here in America. What a difference! We are sure you know what we mean. What happens when the preacher speaks too long or the service is longer than an hour?

After we were first married and went to Korea for World Vision, one of the first things that was brought to our attention was the early morning prayer meetings. At 6:00A.M. EVERY MORNING the churches were filled to capacity for their daily prayer meeting as they worshipped God together. They recognized the importance of worshipping God and were willing to get up before daybreak to honor the Lord by joining with fellow believers to begin the day with worship. By the way, their churches were not heated and it was very cold in the winter, some days at least 20 degrees below zero.

They prayed daily for their country, for their churches and for their countrymen who did not know the Lord. South Korea was known as a Christian nation at that time because they demonstrated their faith in God through prayer and worship. Over half of their population was classified as Christians. This was a great lesson to us about worship and prayer. Our world today needs to make the worshipping of our Lord a priority in our daily lives.

When you are worshipping in the presence of God, this is a time for God to talk to you. A good indicator of our spiritual temperature is our eagerness to worship God. Our worship of God here on earth is only a prelude to the great worship services we will have in the future when we are in the presence of God. We encourage you to worship God daily and live for what you will not regret when you die.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Philippians 1:21.

For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

PRAYER:

Give me today a spirit of worship. Help me to worship You, my God, my Lord and my Savior. I bring all that I have to You today so that as I worship You, You can use me as you see fit. Bless my family, my friends and those in the world we live in that are lonely, hungry and searching for hope that only You can give.

Tolerance: July 31, 2013

TODAY’S WORD FOR WEDNESDAY JULY 31, 2013.

TOLERANCE

DEFINITION:

Disposition to be patient and fair; forbearance; refraining from taking action.

SCRIPTURE:

He is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love, and faithfulness. Psalm 86:15

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. Nahum 1:3

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Many would argue that our God, the living and true God, the God of all creation, is intolerant. This is because they possibly think that they are good people and do not want to believe that as it was written in Romans 3:23, that "we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God," applies to them. Romans 6:23 goes on to tell us that the penalty for our sin is death.

There is one and only one way to be saved from receiving the penalty of death for our sins and that is to accept God's way of redemption -- accepting Jesus Christ as one's Savior. There are no loopholes or any other ways. There is no escaping God's judgment for our sins. Those who think God is intolerant think that God's judgment is not fair.

Our children often thought we were being intolerant when they didn't like being punished for breaking a rule that we had made for them. They loved to complain by saying something like, "It's just not fair."

In reality it is those who think that God is intolerant who are being unfair. When we sin, we are the ones at fault. We have broken God’s rules. When God punishes us we often have the same childish response as our children. “It is not fair!” God does not have to live up to our standard of fairness. We must live up to His. We have the unfair expectation that it is permissible to rebel against God and break His commandments and then expect God to be tolerant toward us.

The Israelites often complained when they suffered the consequences of their sin. Ezekiel said to Israel as recorded in Ezekiel 18:25 "Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' Is it not your ways that are unjust?" The truth is that God was very tolerant and patient with Israel, putting up with their disobedience and even their rejection of Him as their God.

God tolerates our sin and disobedience because He is compassionate (above verses) and slow to get angry. God wants to give us plenty of time to repent of our sins and turn to Him. While God is patient with us, He cannot tolerate our sin forever. He holds us accountable for our sins and judgment will come. In the verse above Nahum tells us that the Lord will not let the wicked go unpunished.

One of the hardest things for parents to do is to be tolerant and slow to anger in raising their children. Think how often your children have broken the rules or over stepped the boundaries that you have set for them. What is your reaction when this happens? Isn't the disobedience of your children difficult to tolerate? We are sure that you feel that it is difficult for you to tolerate this when it happens and to not get angry. When we think of our reactions to our children it should help us to understand how great God's tolerance is for us when we are disobedient.

God wants us to be slow to anger with our children just as He is slow to anger with us. Nevertheless, we cannot let our children's wickedness go unpunished. We must hold our children accountable for their disobedience just as God holds us accountable for our disobedience. 

Tolerance is developing a disposition to be patient and fair in every situation you face in life. How many times have you faced issues at your work place, in your neighborhood and more important with your family where tolerance needed to be practiced and you became intolerant? Every day we need to communicate to our Lord through prayer asking Him for the tolerance you need for that day. Issues and frustrations come and go. As individuals, when we face these issues we make them a serious problem and they should be treated only as a passing situation.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Philippians 1:21.

For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

PRAYER:

Lord, give me patience and help me to be tolerant and slow to anger when my children or others are disobedient. Give me wisdom in holding my children accountable to the rules I have given them. Thank You Lord for the tolerance You have shown me, allowing me time to repent.