Topic: Prescription for Life [Friday October 20, 2017]
If any one intends to come after Me, let him deny himself [forget, ignore, disown and lose sight of himself and his own interests] and take up his cross, and…follow with Me. For whoever wants to save his [higher, spiritual, eternal] life, will lose it…and whoever gives up his life [which is lived only on earth] for My sake and the Gospel’s will save [it]. – Mark 8:34-35, The Amplified Bible
When Jesus said those words, He wasn’t just giving us a prescription for getting to heaven. He was telling us how to live a superior life right here on earth. You see, there’s a high life that we can live right here, right now. But to get in on it, we have to lay down the way of life that most of us are accustomed to. We may have to let go of the very things we’ve been trying so hard to latch on to. We have to set our hearts instead on doing what God wants us to do.
That’s what Jesus did. He didn’t live His life for Himself. He lived it completely for God. He did only what the Father told Him to do—and He lived in total victory.
It’s time to realize that getting born again is not something we do just to miss hell. Our purpose is to please God—to lay down our lives in order to fulfill His desires. To be His special possessions in the earth and to do whatever He tells us to do. Our top priority is to give ourselves to Him and to live in communication with Him. To spend enough time with Him that we can hear His voice and respond in obedience.
Only when we do that will we be genuinely fulfilled. Only when we do that will we be able to live the high life we’ve been longing for.
Scripture Reading: Acts 20:7-24
This message was written by Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, the leader of the Kenneth Copeland Ministries (www.KCM.org) that specializes in teaching principles of bible faith – prayer, healing, salvation and other biblical topics.
Key Verse:“Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them”(Ezekiel 16:17).
In many nations, nowadays, what should ordinarily count as blessings to them have become sources of trouble or suffering. Some countries, blessed with rich natural resources, have allowed this to become a curse to the point that they no longer enjoy peace and a robust economy. Earnings from the natural resources are not put to proper use. Rather, various activities that did not elevate the worship of God are enthroned; idolatry is courted; greed and wickedness are elevated to statecraft. Often, the result is monumental crisis that has left such countries writhing in moral, social and economic decay. This was the case with Israel in the text. She used the bounty that was given to her by God as an opportunity to make trade alliances with the nations. The silver and gold that was given to her by God was used to make the idols. It was expected that when traders passed through Palestine, the Israelites would have an opportunity to talk to them about the living God.
Instead of being the international influence on other nations originally intended by God, she adopted the gods of the nations and played harlotry with them. She compromised her faithfulness to God, deteriorated morally to the point of offering her children in sacrifice to idols. Some category of believers are drifting into the world as a result of blessings that should ordinarily draw them closer to God. A good number of believers, who received God’s mercy in the area of financial blessing, appear to have forgotten. Regrettably, they embraced idolatry as a lifestyle.
They forgot that the Lord lifted them from the dungeon of poverty. Regrettably, they are subtly but progressively imbibing the lifestyle and practices of the world. Such people must retrace their steps, turn their focus on God and keep their eyes on the covenant they made to serve Him, in want and in plenty.
Thought for the day: Those who follow the way of the world, lose their rights before God.
Bible Reading in one Year: 2 Kings 18-19
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
Topic: Victory Over Temptation [Friday October 20, 2017]
. . . tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed . . . — Romans 5:3–5
God never promised to remove temptation from us, for even Christ was subject to it. The Bible says that “He was tested in all things, like as we, yet without sin.” There is no good reason why you should seek to escape, for such times of testing have beneficial effects. There is a sense of achievement and assurance that results from victory over temptation that cannot come to us otherwise. Temptation shows what people really are. It does not make us Christian or un-Christian. It does make the Christian stronger and causes him to discover resources of power. You can benefit from what might be tragedy, if you will only discover that in just such a time of temptation, Christ can become more real to you than ever, and His salvation will become more meaningful. Prayer for the day: In all times of temptation, may I remember Your example, Lord Jesus.
Written by Billy Graham, Founder of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association(BGEA). BGEA exists to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ by every effective means and to equip the church and others to do the same.
Topic: There Is Only One Way To The Father – Friday October 20, 2017.
John 14:5 “Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?”
John 14:5-6
Thomas knew Jesus. He just didn’t realize Jesus was “the way.” Likewise, people today know portions of God’s Word but they don’t realize that God’s Word is their way to victory. Often, people cry out for God to speak to them while their Bible lays unopened on their nightstand. God has spoken to us through His Word. We just need to believe it and receive its truths as our way to victory. Jesus didn’t say: “I am a way, a truth, and a life.” He claimed to be the only way, truth, and life. No man can come to the Father except through Jesus. This means that anyone who claims to honor Jesus while advocating other ways to get to God, truth, or life, besides Jesus, is deceived or a deceiver.
Jesus’ claims about Himself, of which there is only one, left no room for other means to salvation. He is either who He says He is, or He is the greatest deceiver of all time. His own statements about Himself leave no other alternatives. Therefore, other religions that recognize Jesus and His teachings as wonderful examples, but don’t believe He is the only way to achieve salvation, are false.
The Word of God is a spiritual book written under the direction of the Holy Spirit. It was not written to our head but to the innermost part of our heart. This is why some people find the Bible so hard to understand. They are trying to comprehend it using only their mind. The Word of God has to inspire our heart before it can enlighten our mind.
This message was written by The Association of Related Ministries International (ARMI) is an extension of Andrew Wommack Ministries (AWM). ARMI is a unique partnership committed to providing resources to help like-minded ministers succeed in a spirit of excellence and to draw from the experience and expertise of both the AWM and Charis Bible College staff. (www.awmi.net).
Topic: When Beauty Never Ends — Friday October 20, 2017.
Read: Psalm 27:1–4, Bible in a Year: Isaiah 59–61; 2 Thessalonians 3
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.Psalm 63:3
I love looking at the Grand Canyon. Whenever I stand at the canyon rim I see new brushstrokes of God’s handiwork that take my breath away. Even though it’s just a (very large) “hole” in the ground, the Grand Canyon causes me to reflect on heaven. A very honest twelve-year-old asked me once, “Won’t heaven be boring? Don’t you think we’ll get tired of praising God all the time?” But if a “hole in the ground” can be so overwhelmingly beautiful we can’t stop looking at it, we can only imagine the joy of one day seeing the very Source of beauty—our loving Creator—in all of the pristine wonder of the new creation.
David expressed this longing when he wrote, “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord” (Ps. 27:4). There’s nothing more beautiful than the presence of God, which draws near to us on this earth as we seek Him by faith, looking forward to seeing Him face to face.
On that day we’ll never tire of praising our amazing Lord, because we will never come to an end of fresh, new discoveries of His exquisite goodness and the wonders of the works of His hands. Every moment in His presence will bring a breathtaking revelation of His beauty and His love.
Prayer:Beautiful Savior, please help me to seek You every day and to live even now in Your presence and Your love.
We were created to enjoy God forever. Insight:
God is worthy of our faith, hope, and confidence; His power and presence are the foundation of many of the Old Testament stories. But sometimes life makes us question what we know. It’s hard to see these truths about God when life is hard. That’s when we need to view our experience through the lens of Scripture.
David does just that in Psalm 27. Despite having been anointed king by Samuel, he is living as a vagrant and fugitive. Even though he is on the run and enemy armies are pursuing him (vv. 2–3), he is confident in the Lord (v. 3). It is just then—when David’s immediate experience suggests hopelessness—that he rests in the power and protection of the Lord. Turning his eyes away from his circumstances and toward the Lord bolstered David’s confidence. His one desire was not to be vindicated in front of his enemies, but to be in the presence of the Lord (v. 4). Turning to the Lord is what gave him confidence in the day of trouble (v. 5).
Where does your experience need to be understood through the lens of Scripture? What truth about God do you need to be reminded of today? J.R. Hudberg This message was written By James Banks [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]
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Events over the past several months have raised a painful awareness of the continuing existence of racial division and inequality across America. On October 19th Christian television leader Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) will air a special edition of its award-winning ministry and talk show Praise, centered on the critical role of the church in helping to facilitate racial reconciliation in America.
Hosted by the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the program was taped at The King Center in Atlanta and features two experts on this crucial issue: Dr. Mike Hayes, president of Churches in Covenant and founder of the Center for National Renewal in Washington, D.C.; and Dr. Bernice King, daughter of civil rights pioneer Dr. Martin Luther King and CEO of The King Center, started by her mother, Coretta Scott King, in 1968.
Pastor Rodriguez noted that nearly 50 years after the tragic death of Dr. Martin Luther King, racial inequality and division continue to be systemic across the nation. “Many people assume we fully addressed this issue in the past,” he said. “What is happening? Where are we today? And where is the church?”
Pastor Hayes recalled that over 30 years ago, God gave him a vision for the church in America that would truly resemble the kingdom of God, composed of every ethnicity, race and people group. He said that the goal remains: “We can create an environment in our churches that will cause racial reconciliation and harmony to spread throughout the body of Christ.”
Dr. King said that following the death of her father, America never really finished dealing with the issue of racism. “We kind of swept it under the rug,” she said. In particular, she added, “the church has been silent on the issue of racism”— something that must begin to change, she charged.
“All that we have gone through and experienced in America—the trauma of institutionalized racism—has got to be healed,” challenged Dr. King. “All of us are victims, because we were all born into the system. The church has to get this right because it begins in the house of the Lord.”
Added Pastor Rodriguez: “I would argue that the church has the leading role in addressing the issue of systemic racism across America. We are anointed to bring good news. … It’s not about politics. It’s about righteousness and justice in the name of Jesus.”
Don’t miss Praise Thursday, Oct. 19, at 8 p.m. Eastern / 7 p.m. Central, as TBN hosts a very special dialogue about the church’s role in addressing racism in America. Find out where TBN is airing near you with our channel finder, or watch TBN on our livestream HERE.
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First there was Alyssa Milano. Then Rose McGowan.
Tuesday night came Reese Witherspoon’s bombshell revelation that she was raped by a director at age 16.
Wednesday morning, the news was ablaze with Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney’s allegations of rape by the team doctor when she was just 13.
The #MeToo movement, originally started by Tarana Burke in 1996, has reached tsunami proportions on Facebook this week.
Wave after wave of shocking revelations of sexual abuse committed by men in power over victims of a household-name fame just keep coming, echoed by an exponentially greater number of women and men acknowledging that the same has happened to them with the #MeToo tag on social media.
CBS News reported that more than 24 million have posted on Facebook using the #MeToo tag, and it’s been used over 500,000 times on Twitter, according to CNN.
How has sexual abuse become so prolific in our culture?
Because we live in a sex-filled culture where pornography has become mainstream.
Porn causes sexual aggression
Research has shown that porn causes sexual aggression, changes attitudes toward women and desensitizes the viewer to rape, as found in a meta-analysis of 22 studies by Indiana University and University of Hawaii at Manoa researchers and published in the Journal of Communication.
The work of other researchers has backed this up.
Repeated exposure to pornography was found to negatively affect attitudes toward sexuality and women, in a study by Dr. Jennings Bryant and Dr. Dolf Zillman. A University of Wisconsin psychologist found that porn causes men to not only become more aggressive toward women, but less likely to respond to and have empathy for a rape victim.
Porn is all around us—and it’s changing who we are
Let’s be honest: porn is everywhere.
In mainstream entertainment, the line has been pushed further and further toward vulgarity.
And if that is not enough, it’s too easy to pick up the smartphone or the iPad and go searching for any kind of perversion.
It’s so easy, that now 90 percent of kids ages 8 to 16 have seen online pornography. The largest group of internet porn consumers is children ages 12 to 17 as reported by Guard Child.
We imitate what we see, starting from birth. It’s how we learn languages, learn to feed and care for ourselves and learn how to relate to one another. There are neurons called mirror neurons in the brain that are responsible for helping us learn.
In The Effects of Porn on the Male Brain, neuroscientist and author William Struthers wrote “These mirror neurons are involved when someone views pornography because what they view, they vicariously experience and learn from.”
It’s not just “monkey see, monkey do,” though.
Porn changes the very structure of the brain.
As neuroscientist Dr. Tim Jennings tells us in the Conquer Series, a six-disc series that helps men break free from porn, “Incredibly, our beliefs, thoughts and behaviors… change our brain structure, ultimately changing who we are.”
In fact, the brains of a pornography addict look similar to that of a heroin addict’s.
One study published in JAMA Psychiatry found that porn use shrinks the size of your brain in the areas that are connected with impulse control, motivation, and decision making.
When you watch porn, powerful neurotransmitters such as dopamine are also released, which bond you to those images.
Even thinking about them can automatically cause arousal and a desire for more, just like an addict.
It’s hard to fight your brain
“What starts off as a moral problem quickly becomes a brain problem, explains Dr. Ted Roberts, former Marine Fighter Pilot, pastor and host of the Conquer Series, who has a 90 percent success rate in helping men break free from porn.
“Telling a man to try harder is only tightening the noose of bondage.”
Getting free from porn, therefore, involves reshaping the mind first.
For too long we have let porn teach men about human sexuality … it’s infiltrated their thoughts and shown through in their actions.
When we help men break free from the chains of pornography and pursue integrity, maybe then we will finally see the numbers of #MeToo victims recede.
To stem the tide of sexual abuse that is overtaking us, we need healing for men who are trapped in a cycle of addiction and acting out.
“As a pastor and a church planter myself, this is one of our biggest issues, and it’s what captures men’s brains and their hearts and leads them in the wrong direction,” said Paul Cole, president of the Christian Men’s Network, “When the Conquer Series begins to be a part of who we are, it will begin to change what we do and what we are as a church.”
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Responding to a new Pew study this week in which a record 56 percent of Americans said that God is not a prerequisite for good values and morality, Pennsylvania-based pastor Michael Anthony says that people have mistaken the concept of “good” with that of “politeness.”
“One of the most harmful things that has happened in the 21st century is that we have confused being polite with being good, moral or holy. We can certainly be polite without God. It happens all the time. In fact, many non-religious people are more polite than many religious people. But good & moral and polite are not the same thing—and herein lies the problem with the attitudes expressed in this study,” Anthony, the lead pastor of Grace Fellowship of York, Pennsylvania, says.
According to Anthony, the fly in the ointment of people thinking they can be good without God is the cross of Jesus Christ.
“The cross is the definitive statement of good and evil. If we believe we can be good without God, then the cross means nothing; it would be the most confusing event in all of history—courtesy of God himself. God would have sent his Son for a need that didn’t exist. But the need does exist because the Bible says: ‘While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.'”
Anthony further contends that the great need for humanity is not to be polite, but to be holy, for the Bible says: “Without holiness, no one will see the Lord.” However, the real question is: “What do people really understand about the cross of Christ?”
“If we can be good without God, then we can be good without the need for the cross—and that presents a fundamental problem with the historic reality of Jesus of Nazareth, the gospel accounts and the whole record of Scripture and history.”
Unfortunately, Anthony sums up what this study really says: “The study actually reflects a deeper belief system: that more people now believe it is possible to live life without belief in a God who created the concepts and realities of good and evil.”
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A New Jersey teacher was suspended for giving a student a Bible. A football coach was placed on leave for praying on the field. The Atlanta fire chief was fired for self-publishing a book defending Christian morality.
A Marine was court-martialed for refusing to remove a Bible verse on her desk. A senator castigated a political nominee for his evangelical theology. Christian groups like InterVarsity Christian Fellowship have been expelled from college campuses.
It’s hard for evangelical Christians not to feel that our culture is increasingly antagonistic toward our faith and values today.
I raise this topic because of a fascinating report released yesterday. Sociologist George Yancey shows that those who oppose evangelical Christianity have become wealthier in recent years and thus have more money to bankroll their viewpoint. In other words, we can expect intolerance to continue and even escalate in coming years.
Obviously, American Christians should not compare the opposition we face with the persecution being suffered in countries such as North Korea, Somalia, and Iraq. But Mary Eberstadt is right: “Something new has snaked its way into the village square: an insidious intolerance for religion that has no place in a country founded on religious freedom.”
How should we respond?
God wants his people to work for the common good regardless of how society treats us. He instructed his people exiled in Babylon to “Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive” (Jer. 29:7). The apostles led a movement that met physical, social and spiritual needs so effectively that they won “favor with all the people” (Acts 2:47a).
Conversely, one of the ways God redeems persecution is by using it to remind us that this world is not our home: “For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Heb. 13:14). We are “aliens and refugees” in this fallen world ((1 Pet. 2:11) knowing that this life is a journey and heaven is our destination.
In The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis famously noted:
The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure and merriment, he has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy.
It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bath or a football match have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”
Paul called his ministry team “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Cor. 5:20). We courageously advanced the agenda of his King in distant lands while preparing every day to return home.
Jim Denison, Ph.D.,is founder of the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture, a non-sectarian “think tank” designed to engage contemporary issues with biblical truth. Join over 100,000 who read Dr. Denison’s daily Cultural Commentary:denisonforum.org/subscribe. For more information on the Denison Forum, visitdenisonforum.org. To connect with Dr. Denison in social media, visit twitter.com/jimdenison or facebook.com/denisonforum.
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#MeToo Campaign Inspires For King & Country to Offer Free Screening of ‘Priceless’
Thousands of women have joined the #MeToo campaign to raise awareness of sexual harassment and assault. If you have been on social media recently, you have likely seen the hashtag #MeToo circulating, drawing attention to all the women who have suffered sexual harassment and abuse.
The movement has been spurred on by the many allegations of sexual harassment and assault levelled against Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein.
Now, Christian band For King & Country has joined the effort and is offering a live streaming of their film Priceless on Facebook at 8 p.m. EST. The film, which was released last year, addresses the issue of sex trafficking.
The IMDB.com description of the film says: “A widower who loses custody of his daughter finds himself unable to hold down a job. He agrees to drive a truck across the country, no questions asked. But when he discovers what he is delivering, he is faced with a life-changing choice.”
For King & Country frontmen Luke and Joel Smallbone explained the motivation behind the film’s story:
“We’ve been standing on stage telling women that they deserve to be treated with love and respect,” Joel Smallbone shared, as reported by CBN News. “And telling men that there’s a chivalrous way to show love. That led us to Priceless.”
“It’s the band’s desire that more people will be aware of the victims of sexual abuse and its devastating aftermath that leaves victims hopeless and without a voice. Each one is priceless,” read a press release from the band.
Tune in tonight on For King & Country’s Facebook page at 8 p.m. EST to watch Priceless.
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