“And the great dragon was cast out, the old serpent, called the devil, and satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brothers is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him (the evil one) by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimonies.”
(Revelation 12:11)
So it is, that, our first two weapons are the blood of Jesus, and the word of our testimonies. The blood is a free gift. The word of our testimony is a decision that we make to confess our status, and to rebuke the evil one based on the Word of God.
One of the most potent tools of the evil one is deception. He is constantly trying to get us to make negative confessions about our selves and others. He does this by convincing us in our hearts of his lies about us and about God.
Often, satan causes us to focus on the things that others have that we apparently do not. He wants us focused on what we want and what we think we have need of. The consequence of falling into this temptation is that we focus on what we do not have instead of the blessings in our life. May I make a suggestion that will help immensely in this?
The next time you find yourself in the middle of a pity party, get a legal pad and a pen. Immediately begin to write down the blessings for which you are grateful to God. Here are some examples: health, freedom, the things that you have, the bills that you have paid, your
job or work…(many people are unhappy with their work while others are desperate to have a job and can not seem to find one)… your children…(many people complain about their children while others long to have them and can not)…your spouse (see the last two examples)…etc.
Next, get an empty shoe box. Write “God Box” on the outside. Deposit your gratitude list in the “God Box”. Then the next time you are focused on your lack or needs, pull out the gratitude list and thank God and/or add to it. You will be surprised how this little exercise will help you refocus your attitude. You will feel much better immediately.
We often also fall into worry, fear and anxiety. The good people at alcoholics anonymous discovered early in their work with other alcoholics, that these three factors were causal to internal unhappiness. They adopted the serenity prayer. The serenity prayer is very soothing when one is in a time of worry, fear or anxiety:
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things that I can not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” Priceless?
Worry, fear and anxiety can do absolutely nothing to help us. They are negative emotions that make the situation worse. An old football coach once taught me not to worry. He said that if you can change the situation that is worrying you, change it. If not, do not worry about it.
Back to the God box…If you have something about which you are worried, afraid or anxious and you can not change it; write it down on a slip of paper and deposit in your “God Box”. Release the thing or circumstance with your fear and trust God.
I rarely pass along e messages. This one though is so encouraging and good, I could not withstand the temptation to send it to you. Enjoy.
NASA & THE BIBLE
Thought this was pretty amazing and interesting!!
For all the scientists out there, and for all the students who have a hard time convincing these people regarding the truth of the Bible, here’s something that shows God’s awesome creation, and that He is still in control.
Did you know that the space program is busy proving that what has been called “Myth” in the Bible is true?
Mr. Harold Hill, President of the Curtis Engine Company in Baltimore, Maryland, and a consultant in the space program, relates the following development……..
I think one of the most amazing things that God has done for us today happened recently to our astronauts and space scientists at Green Belt, Maryland.
They were checking out where the positions of the sun, moon, and planets would be 100 years and 1,000 years from now.. We have to know this so we won’t send up a satellite and have it bump into something later on in its orbits.
We have to lay out the orbits in terms of the life of the satellite and where the planets will be so the whole thing will not bog down
They ran the computer measurement back and forth over the centuries, and it came to a halt. The computer stopped and put up a red signal, which meant that there was something wrong with either the information fed into it or with the results as compared to the standards.
They called in the service department to check it out, and they said, ‘What’s wrong?’ Well, they found there is a day missing in space in elapsed time. They scratched their heads and tore their hair out.. There was no answer.
Finally a Christian man on the team said, ‘You know, one time I was in Sunday School, and they talked about the sun standing still.’
While they didn’t believe him, they didn’t have an answer either, so they said, ‘Show us,’
He got a Bible and went to the book of Joshua where they found a pretty ridiculous statement for any one with ‘common sense.’
There they found the Lord saying to Joshua, ‘Fear them not, I have delivered them into thy hand; there shall not a man of them stand before Thee.’
Joshua was concerned because he was surrounded by the enemy and if darkness fell, they would overpower them. So Joshua asked the Lord to make the sun stand still! That’s right.. ‘The sun stood still and the moon stayed and lasted not to go down about a whole day!’ (Joshua 10:12-13)
The astronauts and scientists said, ‘There is the missing day!’ They checked the computers going back into the time it was written and found it was close but not close enough. The elapsed time that was missing back in Joshua’s day was 23 hours and 20 minutes – not a whole day.
They read the Bible, and there it was ‘about’ [approximately] a day. These little words in the Bible are important, but they were still in trouble because if you cannot account for 40 minutes, you’ll still be in trouble 1000 years from now. Forty minutes had to be found because it can be multiplied many times over in orbits.
As the Christian employee thought about it, he remembered somewhere in the Bible where it said the sun went BACKWARDS. The scientists told him he was out of his mind, but they got out the Bible and read these words in Second Kings that told of the following story: Hezekiah, on his death bed, was visited by the prophet Isaiah who told him that he was not going to die. Hezekiah asked for a sign as proof. Isaiah said, ‘Do you want the sun to go ahead 10 degrees’
Hezekiah said, ‘It is nothing for the sun to go ahead 10 degrees, but let the shadow return backward 10 degrees.’ Isaiah spoke to the Lord, and the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees BACKWARD! Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes!
Twenty-three hours and 20 minutes in Joshua, plus 40 minutes in Second Kings make the missing day in the universe! Isn’t it amazing?
References: Joshua 10:8 and 12,13 and 2 Kings 20:9-11.
God’s Word is always true,
Pastor Allen
www.throneofgraceministries.com
