Good morning everyone. As I sit here basking in the word and the promises of God, it gives me great pleasure to know that everything that I have become is by His grace and mercy. It’s in my spirit to tell all of you to hold on tight to the promises of God.
Today’s Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, what, if anything, do we as a nation hold sacred today? Not You, Lord God. For as a nation, we often turn to You only in times of crisis. We hear Your name taken in vain in everyday life, and in movies and on TV. We no longer honor our flag and observe the rules for its display and use as we once did. Today we see the flag made into bikinis and other wearing apparel, and we allow it to be burned as a sign of protest. Yet in our Pledge of Allegiance, we still say that we are “one nation under God.” We have tried to destroy any reference to You in our schools, and have taken the Bible out of many of our school libraries, denying our young people the freedom to learn its contents. Our Senate still opens its sessions with a prayer by its Chaplain, and yet our teenagers must go outside their schools to pray! No one should be forced to pray, but to be denied the right to pray shows that we have forsaken You and our Christian heritage. Unless we, who call ourselves Your people, unite and stand together to bring us back to sanity, then as a nation that holds nothing sacred, we are in danger of facing the penalty of Your judgment. Help us, Lord God, to see this before it is too late! In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Let’s eat.
A Call to Persevere
Hebrews 10:19-39
And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us. For we know the one who said, “I will take revenge. I will pay them back.” He also said, “The Lord will judge his own people.” It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever. So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.” But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.
Quote of the Day
Christ is not a reservoir but a spring. His life is continual, active and ever passing on with an outflow as necessary as its inflow. If we do not perpetually draw the fresh supply from the living Fountain, we hall either grow stagnant or empty, It is, therefore, not so much a perpetual fullness as a perpetual filling.
A. B. Simpson
WITH HOPE AND FAITH
REV. ELDER G E STERRETT
FOUNDER
GCKRS HELPING HAND FOUNDATION – THE RELATIONSHIP FACTORY