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Berean….Good, then start believing in what Jesus “actually says”, for a change, instead of what the SDA IS TELLING YOU.
Peace and love to you and yours…….gene
Gene
All that the Father (of Heaven)giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
[38] For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.( John 5:38)Gene, Where do Jesus Come from ?
Do not be like certain listeners of Christ who doubted his origin AND HIS mission and who murmured:
[41] The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
[42]And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?
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Daily Devotional
Christ had to take our fallen nature
“Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in all things, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17)
The lust of the chair, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, are sinful tendencies which reside in the chair, and which exert an attraction upon us. That was the temptation. But temptation is not sin. Until the desire [craving] is nurtured and cherished, there is no fault.
But as soon as the desire is nurtured and nurtured, as soon as we consent to it, welcome it into our mind, or keep it there, sin is there. And whether or not this desire materializes in an act, the sin is committed. By consenting to it, we have already done the thing, insofar as we consider the action of thought. All that can come of it next is just the sensual part, the satisfaction of the chair.
Therefore, the only place in our person where the Lord can bring us help and deliverance is where the thoughts sit. That’s where the very root of sin is, that’s where sin was conceived, that’s where it starts. Therefore, though he was tempted and tried, He [Jesus] never raised his hand to retaliate, neither when they spat on him, nor when they struck him in the face and on the head, nor during his public ministry when the priests, in their wickedness, will produce all they can to anger and irritate him. He did not have to restrain such gestures, because even the impulse was not allowed. Yet he possessed our human nature in which such impulses are so natural.Why in him were these movements not affected in our human nature?
He was subject to the will of the Father. The power of God, through the Holy Spirit, was struggling against the chair in the battlefield of thoughts. Under all these cruel insults and trials, our human nature in him was just as calm as when the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, overshadowed him near the banks of the Jordan. Now let that thought be in you also (Philippians 2:5).
Wagoner sur Romans, p. 348.
God bless
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Daily Devotional
CHINESE BULLET TRAIN
An Amazing Fact: Back in 2007, a French train set the locomotive speed record by reaching 360 mph. While this record was most impressive, that bullet train was an experimental test carrying no passengers, composed of two power cars and only three rail cars. But in December 2010, a new high-speed rail in China called the “Harmony Express” broke 302 mph. That’s over twice the speed of a Cessna 182 airplane. So, why is the 302 mph record so astonishing when the French reached 360 mph?
First, China’s new bullet train was toting 16 cars, and a few passengers. Second, the train didn’t just crest 302 and then settle back to a more sane speed. Instead, the streamlined super-train was consistently traveling at speeds of 260 mph before cranking up the turbo to pass the magic 300 number, and then finally settling back at a robust 260 mph. Passengers aboard the bullet train claim they didn’t feel much difference between 150 and 300 mph.
The Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway is now in service and is the world’s longest high-speed line ever constructed in a single phase. It was designed to carry passengers 811 miles in about four hours, averaging 204 mph. Other parallel high-speed trains take almost 10 hours to cover the same distance. This reduced the travel time from Beijing to Shanghai by more than 50 percent. The project cost about $32 billion and carries 165,000 passengers a day. It has had its glitches, but has been providing regular service since November 2011. In 1933 it took the train 44 hours to travel the same distance.
Did you know that Bible prophecy alludes to rapid travel in the last days? Notice these words: “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase” (Daniel 12:4). Mankind’s ability to travel quickly will also parallel a deeper understanding of prophecy. I pray the speed with which we travel these days will be matched by the depth with which we understand our Bibles!
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
“The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.”
Nahum 2:4God bless
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Daily Devotional
CONVERSION MIRACLES
An Amazing Fact: Plastic is one of the most versatile materials in the world. Plastics can be made as hard as stone, strong as steel, transparent as glass, and elastic as rubber. Plastics are also lightweight, waterproof, resistant to chemicals and bacteria, and can be produced in a rainbow of colors. At night many of us sleep on mattresses and under blankets made of plastic materials. In the morning, we step out of bed onto polyester and nylon carpets. Plastics are used in the computers we use, the utensils we cook with, the toys we play with, the buildings we work in, and the cars we drive.
For example, the average car contains over 300 pounds of plastics—approximately eight percent of the vehicle’s overall weight! Telephones, textiles, paints, boats, furniture, and thousands of other products are made of plastic. In fact, by 1979 the volume of plastics produced in the United States surpassed the volume of steel produced.
Where does all this plastic come from? Most plastic is chemically fabricated from fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas. And where did all that gas and oil come from? Our earth’s great reserves of fossil fuel were formed from organic matter that lived before Noah’s flood. As the tremendous forests of the antediluvian world, lush with plants and teeming with animal life—including dinosaurs—were destroyed by the flood, the wind and currents pushed their debris into immense heaps.
These deposits were buried under deep layers of mud and silt, which gradually hardened into rock. After 4,000 years of heat and pressure, these enormous pockets of compost were compressed and transformed into great fields of coal, oil, and natural gas. That’s right—the car you drive is not running on horsepower but dino-power! And your computer is made of ancient ferns! It’s amazing to consider that so many of our modern plastic products are made from ancient plants and animals.
God is a master at converting matter. He turned water to wine and sticks to snakes. God even turned a woman into salt! But God’s most amazing conversions are the ones He works on human hearts–He turned a greedy tax collector into a generous giver, and a demon-possessed maniac into a missionary. Does your heart need a conversion today? All God needs is your permission.
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”
Ezekiel 36:26GOD BLESS
https://www.amazingfacts.org/bible-study/daily-devotional
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Daily Devotional
What Conversion Does and Doesn’t
“For … it is we who worship God by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who do not put our trust in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3)
Conversion does not put new flesh on the old spirit, but a new Spirit in the old flesh. It does not propose to bring new flesh to the old thought, but new thought to the old flesh.
Deliverance and victory are not obtained by cutting off human nature, but by receiving divine nature to soften and subdue human nature. It is not taking away the flesh of sin, but sending the sinless Spirit to overcome sin and condemn it in the flesh. (Romans 8:3)
Scripture does not say: Have this flesh upon you which was also upon Jesus Christ; but she said, “Have in you the feelings that were in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)
God bless
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Daily Devotional
LIKE LIGHTNING
AN AMAZING FACT: Very few natural phenomenon’s are as impressive as lightning—and it’s more common than you might think. Every day 44,000 lightning storms occur worldwide with lightning striking the earth 6,000 times a minute. The idea that lightning never strikes the same place twice is a complete myth. For example, the top of the Empire State Building averages over 20 hits per year. While most lightning occurs during thunderstorms, lightning can also be sparked by volcanic eruptions, intense forest fires, hurricanes, and even snowstorms! The average lightning stroke is three to four miles long, and it can raise the temperature of the immediately surrounding air to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s hotter than the surface of the sun!
Lightning enthusiasts have given names to several varieties of lightning with special characteristics. A “positive giant” is a lightning strike that hits the ground up to 20 miles away from the thunderstorm. They are often called “a bolt from the blue” because they seem to strike from a clear sky. Originating from the top of the storm cloud, they are especially destructive, with several times the energy of a typical lightning strike. “Crawlers” are a rare and beautiful form of lightning that seems to crawl along the horizon as it zaps from cloud to cloud. Radar has detected crawlers that are 75 miles long!To estimate your distance from a lightning strike, count the number of seconds between when you see the lightning flash and hear the thunder. Each five second interval is roughly equivalent to one mile in distance. On average, thunder can only be heard over a distance of five or six miles, but at night lightning can be seen 100 miles away.
Perhaps this visibility is why Jesus compared His second coming to a strike of lightning. While we can’t set a time for His coming, we’ll certainly see it when it happens! Like a lightning storm on a divine scale, it will be an event with incomparable beauty and power. While it is wise to take shelter during earthly lightning storms, the Bible teaches that only the wicked will try to hide from Jesus’ coming—the righteous will be anxious to watch the show. That’s one display I don’t want to miss!
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Matthew 24:27God bless
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Daily Devotional
<h2>The only way to be able to look the sun in the face.</h2>
“<span style=”color: #008000;”>All of us who, with our faces uncovered, contemplate as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)</span>The sun shines in the sky. We would like to look at it, but a simple glance dazzles us so much, that it takes us a moment to regain normal vision.
But if you take a prism — a piece of glass with three sides — and hold it up to the sun so light passes through the prism, you see a rainbow reflecting off the wall. And what prettier mix of colors could you find?
Yet the rainbow is nothing but sunlight with all its brilliance, but distributed in such a way that we can look at it and see all its beauty. The prism gives the rays of the sun an aspect that makes it possible for us to look at it. But if we try to look the sun in the face, we can’t see it.
Now, God is much brighter than the sun. What would His matchless glory do to our mortal and sinner eyes? It would consume us. Yet, God wants us to see His glory. This is why Jesus places Himself between the Father and us, and the Father makes all His glory manifest in Jesus and shine through His face. Thus we are enabled to see God as He is.
If you hold Christ before your eyes, you can see the glory of God manifest every day of the year: He is like a divine prism that refracts the bright rays of God’s glory. You yourselves are thus exposed to the light of God so that these refracted rays fall back on you and are reflected there. So not only you, but other people will constantly see the glory of God.Will you allow yourself to stand there, open to the refracted rays of God’s glory shining through that blessed prism?
Wagoner, Signs of the Times, 1/5/1893.
<span style=”color: #800000;”>“Jesus spoke to them again and said, I am the light of the world. (John 8:12) “You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hid… Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:14 and 16) </span>
God bless
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AN AMAZING FACT: In October 2002, Abraham Abdallah pled guilty to 12 counts of fraud while on trial for the largest identity theft operation in recent history. The 32-year-old busboy and high school dropout had attempted to steal the identities of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Oprah Winfrey, Ted Turner, and scores of other famous people whose names he got from a Forbes list of wealthy Americans. When he was caught, he had scores of sensitive personal information noted in his dog-eared copy of the Forbes 400 list—checking account numbers, account balances, social security numbers, cell phone numbers, and more.
Abdallah started small: he would call the victim’s bank, giving the clerk publicly available personal information, trying to convince the clerk he was the victim’s financial adviser. With each call he would try to glean just a tiny bit of information—perhaps only an account balance. But hundreds of calls later, Abdallah had enough information to request account transfers from genuine accounts to fraudulent accounts he had created. By the end, he had access to $80 million dollars.
Abdallah had a second scheme: he used his connection with an employee of an online company to steal credit card numbers and would use those numbers to order merchandise, like a machine to make his own credit cards. At the time of his arrest, Abdallah had 800 fake credit cards and had stolen $78,000 worth of goods.
But Abdallah is far from the worst identity thief—the thief who has stolen the identity of the entire world and left us with an immeasurable debt. While God created mankind in His image, the devil has stolen that holy identity and left us sinners. He started small, but his lies eventually gave him access to the entire human race. Yet the devil will not be allowed to practice his thievery forever! The time will soon come when the devil will be “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone” (Revelation 20:10). And the debt of his victims? Praise be to God—Jesus has paid that debt!
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. John 8:44God bless
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Daily Devotional
AN AMAZING FACT: A police chief in the Seattle area was arrested and sentenced to several years in prison for swindling disabled citizens of their social security money, the very people he was paid to protect!
Police chief Charles Allen of Granite Falls, Washington, was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzling money from disabled citizens. The chief used the label of a non-profit agency, allegedly helping manage finances for citizens in need. But rather than assisting his clients in making the best use of their funds, Allen admitted to unlawfully taking up to $14,000 for himself on a monthly basis, for a total of more than $600,000 over several years.A special assistant attorney called Allen’s deed an “act of extreme hypocrisy.” As a police chief, his duty was to protect the citizens of his city, but instead the city had to step in and protect citizens from him. The chief knew that his clients were mentally and physically unable to manage their funds for themselves, yet he did not hesitate to steal from their small monthly checks.
It is easy to recognize the abhorrence of Allen’s actions. Jesus clearly taught His followers not to follow in the paths of hypocrites who “say, and do not do,” and Allen’s crime is a clear example of such hypocrisy. But we might find ourselves sliding into hypocrisy on a smaller level. A Christian life is more than becoming a part of Christian subculture and living under a Christian label. Do our lives reflect the Savior we profess to follow? Do our words and attitudes to others speak of God’s love?
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. Matthew 23:1-3God bless
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Daily Devotional
The Law of God Becomes the Decisive Stake
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the demonstration of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)
“Do we then break the law by faith? Far from there? On the contrary, we uphold the law. (Romans 3:31) To abolish the law is not to abolish it, for no one can abolish it. To annihilate the law is to show by one’s life that it does not matter, it is to take away its raison d’être.
We nullify the law of God when we make it have no authority in our experience. To break the law is to transgress it, yet the law remains whether it is observed or not. It is only destroyed at the individual level.
Therefore, the apostle means that faith does not lead to breaking the law, but to obedience. And we should not say that faith leads to obedience, but that faith itself obeys. Faith establishes the law in the heart. If the “things hoped for” are righteousness, faith is what establishes and strengthens that righteousness. Faith does not lead to antinomy [the doctrine which affirms that the law of God is abolished or that it is impossible for anyone to truly respect it], on the contrary it is the only thing that opposes it.
No matter how much a person boasts in the law of God; if she rejects or ignores the implicit faith in Christ, she is no better placed than one who attacks the law head-on. The man of faith is the only one who truly honors the law of God.
In truth, faith does the impossible, and that is what God asks us to do. When Joshua told Israel, “You will not have the strength to serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:19), he was telling the truth, and yet God was asking them to serve Him. No one is able to do what is just and right, even if he wants to. It is therefore a mistake to say that all God expects of us is that we do the best we can. He who does no better than this will not do the works of God. No, because he must do better than he is capable of.
He must do what only the power of God working through him can do. It is impossible for a human being to walk on water, yet Peter did it when he used faith: that is, when he trusted Jesus.
Wagoner, Christ and His Righteousness, p. 95 to 96.
God bless
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Daily Devotional
THE DOG KNOWS
AN AMAZING FACT: The incredible sense of smell in a dog boggles the mind. Did you know that from a single drop of urine from an animal, a dog is able to determine its diet, health, sex, mental state, and whether it is friendly, dominant, or submissive? In fact, a dog’s ability to pick up smell is so powerful that it can detect extremely diluted odors that not even the most sophisticated scientific instruments can measure. It can even discriminate different odors, making it impossible to cover up one odor with another. A dog can tell the difference.
God gave dogs an amazing sense of smell. The average dog has about 200 million scent receptors in its nose. (Humans have about 5 million scent receptors.) A dog also has about seven square meters of nasal membranes. (Humans have about half of a square meter.) When you walk into a room and say, “Something stinks in here,” imagine what a dog would say! One dog expert explained that dogs see a 3-D image of odors in a much more detailed way than what people see with their eyes. A dog’s world is all about smell. That’s why they love the smell of their favorite blanket (or your favorite coat or sweater!). If a dog is hanging his nose out the window while you drive around town, he will know when you turn down your street because of the smell in the air.Some dogs are professionally trained to use their nose to find substances like explosives, illegal drugs, or blood. Different from hunting dogs that search for game, or search dogs that search for missing people, detection dogs are often used to pick up specific items. In California, dogs have been trained to detect the quagga mussel on boats, since it is an invasive species. Some springer spaniels have been trained to detect bumblebee nests. And some have even been trained to find illegal cell phones in prison cells. So, if you need to find bed bugs, money, firearms, mold, or even termites, hire a dog!
The Bible says 50 men searched for three days to find Elijah when he went to heaven. They couldn’t find him. Neither could Ahab find Elijah during the time of no rain. When Obadiah finally found him, he told Elijah, “There is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to hunt for you … ” (1 Kings 18:10). But God always knows where we are. He can sniff us out anywhere!
But have you searched for God yourself?
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13God bless
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Daily Devotional
How a weak person becomes strong
“So Peter said to him, ‘I have neither silver nor gold; but what I have, I give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk. And taking him by the right hand, he lifted him up. At the same time, his feet and ankles became firm. (Acts 3:6-7)
This remarkable miracle produced great emotion among the people. But now let’s get an application:
This man was “lame from birth”, he couldn’t change anything about it. If he could, he would have walked gladly, but he couldn’t. Likewise, we too can say with David: “I was born in iniquity, and my mother conceived me in sin. (Psalm 51:7) Each year of his life, this man saw his inability to walk increase with his weight, while his limbs did not grow strong. Likewise, the repeated practice of sin increases its hold over us as we grow older.
Yet the Name of Christ, because of the faith exercised in that name, set him totally free from his infirmity. Likewise, we too, through faith, can be completely restored and enabled to accomplish what was hitherto impossible. As the lives of the greats of biblical antiquity show, one of the miracles of faith is to heal sickness (Hebrews 11:34).
The very act of delivering us from the power of sin proves that God accepts us as His servants. But the conflict returns. Satan comes, armed with the whip of his fierce temptations. We know from sad experience that he is more powerful than us, and that without help we cannot resist him. But we call for help. Then we remember that we are no longer Satan’s subjects. We submitted ourselves to God, and therefore He accepted us as His servants. This is proof that God will protect us, because He takes care of what is His. We then have the assurance that He who has begun a good work in us will make it perfect for the day of Jesus Christ.
Confident in this certainty, we have the strength to resist.
Wagoner, Christ and his righteousness p. 90 to 92.
God bless
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Daily Devotional
which Jesus to watch today?
“But he who was made for a little while lower than the angels, Jesus, we see him crowned with glory and honor because of the death he suffered; thus by the grace of God, he tasted death for all. (Hebrews 2:9)
In the previous contrast (Hebrews 1) we saw Jesus higher than the angels; here (Hebrews2) we see Him lower than the angels. Why? Because the human being was created lower than the angels, and through sin he descended even lower. We see Jesus where human beings have been since they sinned and became subject to death. As sure as Jesus truly was where God is, so surely he has come to where human beings are.
He who was with God where God is, is with the human being where the human being is. And he who was one with God as God is, is one with the human being, as the human being is. And so, as surely as His nature was God, so surely His nature here is human.
“For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one. (Hebrews 2:11) It was Christ and God in heaven: one in nature. In what situation does he find himself on earth in relation to human beings?
They all come from one. He is not ashamed to call us “brethren,” and he adds, “I will praise you in the midst of the congregation” (Hebrews 2:12). That moment will come soon, when Christ will lead the song in the midst of the Church. He who was one with God became a human being.“We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but he was tempted like us in every way, and yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)
God bless
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Daily Devotional
Christ had to take our fallen nature
“Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in all things, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17)
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, are sinful tendencies which reside in the flesh, and which exert an attraction upon us. This is what temptation is. But temptation is not sin. Until the desire [craving] is nurtured and cherished, there is no fault.
But as soon as the desire is nurtured and nurtured, as soon as we consent to it, welcome it into our mind, or keep it there, sin is there. And whether or not this desire materializes in an act, the sin is committed. By consenting to it, we have already done the thing, insofar as we consider the action of thought. All that can come of it then is only the sensual part, the satisfaction of the flesh.
Therefore, the only place in our person where the Lord can bring us help and deliverance is where the thoughts sit. That’s where the very root of sin is, that’s where sin was conceived, that’s where it starts. Therefore, though he was constantly tempted and tried, He [Jesus] never raised his hand to retaliate, neither when they spat on him, nor when they struck him in the face and on the head. , nor during his public ministry when the priests, in their wickedness, did all they could to anger and irritate him. He did not have to restrain such gestures, because even the impulse was not allowed. Yet he possessed our human nature in which such impulses are so natural.Why, in Him, did these movements not manifest in our human nature?
He was subject to the will of the Father. The power of God, through the Holy Spirit, wrestled with the flesh in the battlefield of thoughts. Under all these cruel insults and trials, our human nature in Him was just as calm as when the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, overshadowed Him near the banks of the Jordan. Now let that thought also be in you (Philippians 2:5).
Amen
God bless
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Daily Devotional
God is powerful
The psalmist states, “The Lord reigns; the peoples tremble…the Lord is high above all peoples” (Psalm 99:1/2).
While the whole earth, for two years, has been shaken by Covid-19, while cyclones are ravaging Madagascar and the neighboring islands, while noises of war are heard at the limits of Europe between Russia and the Ukraine, while thousands of truckers clog the roads in Canada and other countries, causing shortages and disorder, while the shortage of water here and there is causing mass exoduses, while the Islamist attacks in the Sahel destabilize the governments in place…, we want with the psalmist to proclaim that the Lord reigns. He controls this situation.
Our God reigns again and always, his love seeks to help those who turn to him.
As we prayed for those suffering from psychological illnesses, this is what Lydia tells us:
“This prayer topic reminds me of Mom. She was mentally ill for a long time because of the Shoah… Her depression started when she came to live in France (after the war). She learned what had really happened, and it made her sick. During one of her fits of madness, tied to her bed in a psychiatric hospital, she called on the Lord, and she was healed…”
Yes God is great!
Let us give thanks to God for his sovereignty, for his omnipotence manifesting itself in a precise way in all our needs.
God is big ; let’s rent it together!
With love,
Paul Calzada
Stop Allowing Satan to Discourage Us
“I am not ashamed, for I know in whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he has the power to keep my deposit until that day. (2 Timothy 1:12)
Some people say, “I have taken on the yoke of Christ, but when I look back and trace the story of my life during that day or that week, I can only see imperfections in what I have done. Then a feeling of condemnation invades me, and I cannot free myself from it. How can I say there is no condemnation for me, when I see these failings and failings? »
It is a shrewd trick of Satan to deprive us [of the certainty] of God’s favorable reception and peace with Him. Do we expect to be justified by those deeds we have done? “No one will be justified before Him by the works of the law. (Romans 3:20)
Someone will say, “I’m afraid of falling. You don’t need to be afraid. What have you entrusted to God? Your life, and he is able to protect and sustain it. When we enter the kingdom of God, we will not look to the best deeds we have done, to thank God that we are justified because we have done so well. But our songs of joy will be [dedicated] “to him who loved us, who delivered us from our sins in his own blood” (Revelation 1:5, KJV). So we know that when we yield to Him and die to self constantly, He does those things for us that we cannot do for ourselves. Do not stop looking at Him! For when we take our eyes off Him and start sinning, it’s not His fault.
Wagoner, General Conference Bulletin, 1891, No.12.
“I am convinced that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)
God bless
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Daily Devotional
In the closing work of God in the earth, the standard of His law will be again exalted. False religion may prevail, iniquity may abound, the love of many may wax cold, the cross of Calvary may be lost sight of, and darkness, like the pall of death, may spread over the world; the whole force of the popular current may be turned against the truth; plot after plot may be formed to overthrow the people of God; but in the hour of greatest peril the God of Elijah will raise up human instrumentalities to bear a message that will not be silenced. In the populous cities of the land, and in the places where men have gone to the greatest lengths in speaking against the Most High, the voice of stern rebuke will be heard. Boldly will men of God’s appointment denounce the union of the church with the world. Earnestly will they call upon men and women to turn from the observance of a man-made institution to the observance of the true Sabbath. “Fear God, and give glory to Him,” they will proclaim to every nation; “for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters…. If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation.” Revelation 14:7-10.
God will not break His covenant, nor alter the thing that has gone out of His lips. His word will stand fast forever as unalterable as His throne. At the judgment this covenant will be brought forth, plainly written with the finger of God, and the world will be arraigned before the bar of Infinite Justice to receive sentence.
Today, as in the days of Elijah, the line of demarcation between God’s commandment-keeping people and the worshipers of false gods is clearly drawn. “How long halt ye between two opinions?” Elijah cried; “if the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him.” 1 Kings 18:21. And the message for today is: “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen…. Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Revelation 18:2, 4, 5.
The time is not far distant when the test will come to every soul. The observance of the false sabbath will be urged upon us. The contest will be between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. Those who have yielded step by step to worldly demands and conformed to worldly customs will then yield to the powers that be, rather than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. At that time the gold will be separated from the dross. True godliness will be clearly distinguished from the appearance and tinsel of it. Many a star that we have admired for its brilliance will then go out in darkness. Those who have assumed the ornaments of the sanctuary, but are not clothed with Christ’s righteousness, will then appear in the shame of their own nakedness.
Among earth’s inhabitants, scattered in every land, there are those who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
Like the stars of heaven, which appear only at night, these faithful ones will shine forth when darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people. In heathen Africa, in the Catholic lands of Europe and of South America, in China, in India, in the islands of the sea, and in all the dark corners of the earth, God has in reserve a firmament of chosen ones that will yet shine forth amidst the darkness, revealing clearly to an apostate world the transforming power of obedience to His law. Even now they are appearing in every nation, among every tongue and people; and in the hour of deepest apostasy, when Satan’s supreme effort is made to cause “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond,” to receive, under penalty of death, the sign of allegiance to a false rest day, these faithful ones, “blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke,” will “shine as lights in the world.” Revelation 13:16; Philippians 2:15. The darker the night, the more brilliantly will they shine.
PK 186.3-PK 188.2God bless
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Daily Devotional
Electronic Armageddon
AN AMAZING FACT: In July 1962, the United States performed a secret test 250 miles above the earth. In this unique experiment, called the Starfish Prime, a 1.44-megaton thermonuclear warhead was detonated in space above the mid-Pacific Ocean. The results demonstrated to scientists that the magnitude and effects of a high-altitude nuclear blast were much larger than previously thought. The results of the Starfish Prime experiment became known publicly because it caused electrical damage in Hawaii 900 miles away. Hundreds of streetlights were knocked out, numerous burglar alarms were triggered, and the telephone company’s microwave link was damaged.
When a nuclear device is exploded just above the earth it sends out massive gamma rays. As they pass through our atmosphere these gamma rays are converted to microwaves, causing an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP. In less than a billionth of a second this EMP will make circuits fry, power lines overload, and the electric grids collapse. Everything with a microchip stops working—including your car, cell phone, and computer. People are basically unharmed, except perhaps those depending on pacemakers. And I would not want to be flying in a jet airliner at that moment.Major military forces of the world now have the technology to make an EMP device. Picture an instantaneous deathblow to the vital engines that power our society, delivered by a nuclear weapon designed not to kill humans, but to attack electronics. EMPs caused by solar flares have probably struck the earth many times throughout history, but that was before the world was run by microchips. If an electromagnetic pulse surged to Earth now it would paralyze every aspect of modern society’s infrastructure and cause an electronic Armageddon! In a few moments the technology of mankind could be transported back to the days of horse and buggies.
It makes you wonder, will the second coming of Jesus cause an EMP? The Bible says it will be a powerful display in the elements. “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?” (2 Peter 3:11, 12).
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. Psalms 50:3God bless
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Daily Devotional
AN AMAZING FACT: Cloud seeding is an experimental method used to cause rain to fall; silver iodide or dry ice has been dumped into clouds in an effort to change its properties and create a rain shower.
If you are a farmer experiencing a severe drought, you might try just about anything to get rain. Efforts to change the weather and increase precipitation have led some scientists, meteorologists, and even commercial companies to develop a way to encourage water to fall from the sky. The original idea was to “seed” clouds with tiny particles whose electrical charge would bring together the cloud’s water droplets. When enough droplets come together, their weight would cause rain to drop.Most commercial outfits emphasize they cannot break droughts but only enhance the conditions in the atmosphere and make it more likely to rain. When thunderstorms approach, these rain makers send up planes to seed the “inflow” part of the clouds that suck up moisture, hoping the particles collide with water vapor and condense into raindrops. Recent research has shown that airplanes that simply pass through clouds appear to create more rain and snow as they punch holes in the clouds, creating a super-cooling effect on water molecules.
Though there are many skeptics on the process of rainmaking, the desire for water to come down from the sky has existed for thousands of years. The most famous biblical weather change during a drought took place during the time of King Ahab. When Elijah confronted the wicked king, he said, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1). No matter how many rain dances and spells were performed by the prophets of Baal, it did not rain.
But something changed. When Elijah had a showdown with these false prophets (whose gods supposedly controlled the weather) on top of Mount Carmel, God exposed the emptiness of their religion. After they were destroyed, Elijah promised Ahab it would rain again. Then he prayed for rain. Seven times he asked his servant to look toward the sea until a rain cloud appeared. Rain eventually drenched the land. Like Ahab’s false prophets, people who boast and make promises of generosity but do not follow through are like clouds that pass over a drought stricken land yet never rain. They bring only dashed hopes and withered expectations. As followers of the Lord, let’s always follow through on our pledges to give.
Additional reading: Proverbs 25:1–14
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain. Proverbs 25:14God bless
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