Something to Overcome

God is good. He is worthy to be praised. God is for us. He is more for us than we are for ourselves.

God wants our lifestyle to reflect Him, but often it does not because His standard is high.

We all need fresh mercy from God daily for the many areas we are not like Him. We also need God to protect believers individually and as groups.

We will have many difficulties in this life, but they can be overcome.

Time and Purpose

In Genesis 1 God organized time into days, years and seasons. He could have established a different order, but He didn't. Days, years and seasons can help us to organize our time purposefully and to be mindful that we don't live forever.

Use time well. Pray a lot. Stay alert. Nurture positive relationships. Don't just let time pass.

Multiplication and Believing

The beginning of the heavens and earth described in Genesis 1 shows one thing God likes is multiplication. On the third day of creation God created seed-bearing plants and trees. On the fifth day God created birds and fish and told them to multiply. On the sixth day He created various animals and people and asked then to multiply.

This does not mean that everybody will multiply the same way. Jacob had 12 children. The Apostle Paul had even more spiritual children. Our influence over people is also a way of multiplying.

Sometimes we are confronted with ideas and obstacles that seek to stop multiplication. Sometimes it make take us a while to figure out that an argument may be designed to fool us rather than be factual. Talk to God to get clear about life. Christians are ambassadors for God believing God will make a way for multiplication.

Sin Can Be Forgiven

In Luke 7 it talks about a woman in sin. She had many sins. God was able to forgive her sins.

Keep, Keeping On

Sometimes we have conflicts of interest in our life that may not seem to be resolvable, but a way can be worked out favorably. Sometimes our enemies seem like a multitude and try to get us focused on narrow ways of thinking, but God is our advocate to help us advance in life. He doesn't want us to trip over trivia.

Psalm 3:1-3 Amplified Bible says, "Lord, How they are increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me. Many are saying of me, There is no help for him in God. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory, and the lifter of my head."

The Word and Disciples

Looking at John 1 we learn that the Word which is Jesus Christ has always existed. God always was, is and will be, and He wants people to have a relationship with Him.

More than 2,000 years ago God sent John the Baptist to tell people about God.

John the Baptist came to announce the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not always recognizable. He is revealed. God gave His people the ability to receive revelation of Him.

John the Baptist testified that he was not the Christ but after him comes the Christ. As believers we are not God, but we are here to testify of Him. Matthew 28:18 indicates that Jesus uses us to bring more people into His kingdom. When Jesus first had His earthly ministry He called disciples into His kingdom. Jesus in John 1 called disciples such as Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip and Nathanael. God uses us also to bring in disciples.

Connection Between Reading and Studying the Bible and Love

Matthew 22:37-40 Amplified Bible says, "And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. These two commandments sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets."

Each day is a day to walk in love. The main thing is the love of God.

Love seems simple but it is not always. God living on the inside of believers gives us the ability to love. The Bible helps us to learn about God living on the inside of believers.

Spend regular time reading and studying the Word of God. Spiritual forces of wickedness do not want us to read and study the Bible, so that they can get in the way of love.

Relationship Building

In the Bible book of Philippians Paul was in prison. He faced opposition in sharing the the reality that God wants to forgive believers of our sins and share an eternal, loving relationship with Him. A relationship with God comes with His love. God uses His love in believers to draw other people into relationship with Him and us. In the midst of the strife that Paul was experiencing, he did not promote strife, but rather relationship building.

One of the things Paul did in Philippians chapter 2 was show appreciation for his friends in ministry, Timothy and Epaphroditus. Take regular time to show appreciation for your friends. This pleases God and encourages others to appreciate them.

Vote Today

"May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]," says Ephesians 3:17-18 Amplified Bible.

God wants a relationship with His people that is deeply rooted in His love. While God's people are in all kinds of societies His love can be more visible in a free society.  In America we have enjoyed many freedoms that are compatible with the love of God, but religious freedom is being attacked.

Be sure to vote today for religious freedom.  Love and freedom equal better relationships.

Vote Tomorrow

Galatians 5:13 tells us that we are free in Jesus Christ, not free to do anything we want, but free to pursue good relationships. Good relationships are strengthened by good governmental leaders and policies. Please vote tomorrow in the American elections for governmental leaders who strengthen the family, friendships and other relationships. Leaders and policies that promote life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness from fertilization, through youth and old age are a blessing to us.

Vote Tuesday, November 6

"First of all, then, I admonish and urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all men, For kings and all who are in positions of authority or high responsibility, that [outwardly] we may pass a quiet and undisturbed life [and inwardly] a peaceable one in all godliness and reverence and seriousness in every way. For such [praying] is good and right, and [it is] pleasing and acceptable to God our Savior," writes the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 2:1-3 Amplified Bible.

Casting our vote Tuesday, November 6, for president of the United States and other governmental offices and political issues is a form of prayer; we will be making a request of God on how to lead America.

Good leaders implement good policies. Proverbs 16:12 Amplified Bible says, "It is an abomination [to God and men] for kings to commit wickedness, for a throne is established and made secure by righteousness (moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation)."

Choose Principle Over Presentation

Nick Vujicic is married to Kanae, expecting his first child with his wife, an evangelist and a motivational speaker who was born without arms or legs and also heads the nonprofit organization Life Without Limbs. Vujicic wanted to star in a movie, but ended up turning down his first movie offer. He says in his book Life Without Limits, "How do you want to be remembered? I didn't want my grandchildren to one day discover a DVD of a movie in which Grandpa Nick curses, drools tobacco juice down his chin, and lives like a degenerate. So I said thanks but no thanks to that first movie offer."

Money, fame and power obtained from evil behavior can be tempting. The Apostles Paul and Barnabas said thanks but no thanks to a tempting, but bad offer. God used Paul to heal a man who had been born unable to walk (Acts 14). Instead of praising God for the miracle the Lycaonian people called Paul and Barnabas gods and wanted to make a sacrifice to worship them. Paul and Barnabas could have gone along with this situation since it presented that Paul and Barnabas were visible whereas God was not. Yet Paul and Barnabas chose principle over presentation. Paul said in response to the false worship in Acts 14:15 Amplified Bible, "Men, why are you doing this? We also are [only] human beings, of nature like your own, and we bring you the good news (Gospel) that you should turn away from these foolish and vain things to the living God, Who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything that they contain."

Choosing principle over presentation is not always popular. Even though Paul did a good deed and also told the truth, the Lycaonians stoned him. Vujicic sometimes suffers persecution for living a life that pleases God. So does Charlene Cothran. Today there is a push to legalize the sin of homosexuality and lesbianism through gay marriage and to present the gay life as positive even Biblical in contradiction to Scriptures like Leviticus 18 and Deuteronomy 22. There are also those fighting for principle over presentation in this area. One such person is Charlene Cothran, who lived the gay lifestyle for almost 30 years, but today is a Christian minister and heads The EVIDENCE Ministry, Inc. Cothran says, in her article Redeemed! 10 Ways to Get Out of the Gay Life, If You Want Out, "Many argue that each individual should determine for themselves what God intends for him or her. This would indicate that we each have a separate set of biblical rules to live by.  This is untrue.  If you are ready for change and willing to open yourself to the truth, God’s love can bring your current belief system in line with His Word.  Jesus will cleanse and forgive all confessed sin from a willing heart.  Homosexuality is only one of them.  It is no greater sin than any of the others, but it is sin."

Please share about instances where principle was chosen over presentation.

Living On Purpose

Prema Dhanraj's mom, Ruthie, like Hannah, the mom of Samuel, prayed for her first child. These moms dedicated Prema and Samuel to God. Prema became a doctor. Samuel became a prophet.

God gives us children for multiple reasons. Ask God to reveal the reasons, and then nurture them and the child. Proverbs 22:6 Amplified Bible says, "Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it."

Prayers are meant to be put into action. Eli trained Samuel in ministry. Prema completed medical school. Samuel became a premier prophet of the Hebrews. Prema became Head of the Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery department of Christian Medical College and Hospital in Vellore, India, and in 1999 she founded Agni Raksha to provide medical treatment to burn victims and to provide career training. Many of the hospital's burn patients are victims of bride burning which can happen when the groom's family is not satisfied with the dowry from the bride's family. Demanding a dowry is suppose to be illegal as of 1961, but it is still practiced.

Samuel and Prema did not forget the investment their God and their parents made in them. They returned it to their family, society and even the world. Samuel's testimony is available to readers of the Bible, the most-read book in history. In addition to her work in India, Prema speaks and trains people internationally to help burn victims. Both Samuel and Prema are committed believers with clear purpose in life. An African proverb says, "If you don't know who you are, anyone can name you; and if anyone can name you, you will answer to anything."

Please share some prayers for your children that were answered in a life lived with godly purpose.