REMEMBER TO PRAY FOR CLASS SPEAKER

 

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THE GREATEST PROMISE EVER KEPT!

ARE YOU WILLING?

Are emotional reactions driving your decisions, or do you prayerfully process the facts clearly and objectively with wise input from others you trust? Do you need to give up something—your house, your car, your career, your travel, or your expectations? What is the Lord asking you to give up so that you can gain Him and His peace? Acceptance requires action.

Furthermore, some people require additional patience and grace to accept. Have others wronged you to the point that your resentment is blocking your acceptance of them? You may justify your rejection of them because of their rejection of you. For example, children and parents can let us down, devastating us, but Christians do not have the option of not accepting them for who they are. Love accepts even unworthy recipients.

Do you find yourself in a situation where you do not feel accepted—a new job, in-laws, a new school, a new city, a new relationship? You can stew in self-pity, or you can take the initiative to reach out to your rejectors. Kindness reaches out and rejects rejection. “A man who has friends must himself be friendly” (Proverbs 18:24 nkjv).

Above all, are you willing to accept God’s call on your life? When His will is uncomfortable and uncertain, will you still follow in trust? Start by accepting Christ by faith as your Savior and Lord, and then continue to accept His commands as evidence that you are His disciple. Acceptance of the Lord allows you to love Him and other people. Acceptance cannot continue alone but is accelerated and accompanied by the Almighty’s grace and love.

ARE YOU LIVING A LIFE WORTH JESUS DYING FOR???

A RICH MAN'S QUESTION

Luke 18:18-25

¹⁸ A certain leader asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to have life forever?”

¹⁹ Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? Only God is good.

²⁰ You know the commands: ‘You must not be guilty of adultery. You must not murder anyone. You must not steal. You must not tell lies about your neighbor. Honor your father and mother.’ ” 

²¹ But the leader said, “I have obeyed all these commands since I was a boy.”

²² When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “There is still one more thing you need to do. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.”

²³ But when the man heard this, he became very sad, because he was very rich.

²⁴ Jesus looked at him and said, “It is very hard for rich people to enter the kingdom of God.

²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

 

LADIES NIGHT OUT

Kim Morrow has put together plans for our class ladies to have a nice evening out. Each of these events in the past have always turned out great! Please mark Thursday 2/28 on your calendar, 6pm for dinner and then a movie.

GOD OR MONEY?

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matthew 6:24).

 How do you know if you love God or money more? Ask yourself if you worry more about missing your prayer time or missing your paycheck. Are you more anxious about what the Almighty thinks, or do you obsess over the opinion of others? Are you driven to seek God’s kingdom first or to blindly build your own kingdom? Devotion to the eternal or the temporal is a choice. It cannot be to both. Only one really captures your worship.

Money makes promises it cannot keep, like security, peace, and prosperity. But the Lord makes promises He does keep, like grace, forgiveness, joy, and contentment. When the commands of these two contradict, will you follow Christ or cash? Decide now, so when you are in the emotion of the moment you do not give in to glittering gold.

What keeps you up at night? Is it how to make more money or how to make more of Jesus? Set your affections above, and you will be more effective below. The Lord is looking for His children with whom He can entrust more of His blessings. He longs for the faithful who use their finances to draw lost souls to salvation, hurting people to healing, and who boldly pray, “Your kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). 

 Perhaps you take your family on a mission trip to see how the masses live with little money but with a lot of the Lord. It is revolutionary for a soul that has been seduced by the mistress of money to see how believers without stuff affectionately embrace their Lord and Savior Jesus. Expose your faith to the poor, so you are liberated from wealth.

This is a heart issue. Who captures your affections—your Savior or your stuff? What does your life reflect to other people - Stuff or God? Money makes a poor master but a useful servant. Indeed, Jesus is the trustworthy Master with whom you can place your faith and devotion. Money tries to maneuver itself into a place of priority, but by faith you can relegate it to serve righteous causes. Love Him, not it.

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).