This Week With Jesus

                                                                                                                    Image 9 Marks We know that it is everyone's responsibility to pray. But do we realize it is also our responsibility to pray responsibly ? Prayer is a serious act: it is talking to the creator Himself- one to one. In the words of Donal Cantrell, "True prayer involves people that understand the importance of taking responsibility. 1 -  God hears us when we pray. 2 – He looks at our hearts for sincerity and honesty. 3 – Do we mean what we are saying or are our words useless babbling? 4 – If we are asking God for financial needs do we honor him in our giving? 5 – If we are seeking wisdom do we read his word for guidance? 6 – If we pray for the backslider do we really love them and want to see them restored? 7 – If we pray for our enemies are we trul​y willing to forgive them? Prayer involves relationship and responsibility." (Donald Cantrell in his sermon on a m

                                               Psalm 121:7-8. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Do you know how many hours of the day we have no control on our life, and completely in Gods hand? No? Well here is a mathematical equation to help you calculate. No. of hours or minutes of sleep + hours spent in travel + hours or mins spent in profession + hours or mins spent in entertainment or games + hours or minutes spent in other activities like eating or partying, worrying, etc. Now if you total it up you will get a pretty good idea of the total time one is in Gods hand.  Mine is 1440 minutes when not I but God is in control.  What is yours? The how. A. When we sleep, we have no consciousness of dangers or potential mishaps - 8 hrs B. When we eat we really don't know the food quality, contamination, source, effect on our bodies and so on. - 1.5 hrs C. When we trav

  *Image - Wikipedia One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.  Psalm 27:4 The following devotional by  Rev. Ms. Francis Taylor was published in the KJV Devotional and made so much sense that we just had to share it with our readers.  "We hope that one day we will dwell in the house of the Lord!  This is the promise and this is our goal. We can also consider that the world we live in, the place that God created is also God's house.  The first place we encounter God is in our own homes with our families, the first church where God can be known and worshiped; the place where faith is learned. The earth with its beauty and strength is also where we encounter God.  The problem is we don't always recognize him, and until we recognize this as coming from God, we don't praise him.  I love the image of a pilgrimage. There was once a mini

  *Adapted from a KJV Devotional Deuteronomy 5:24 And ye said, Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth. Man’s eye is not single, he has ever a side glance towards his own honor, has too high an estimate of his own powers, and so is not qualified to behold the glory of the Lord. and this is the reason why he brings his people ofttimes into straits and difficulties, that, being made conscious of their own folly and weakness, they may be fitted to behold the majesty of God when he comes forth to work their deliverance. We learn the power of God , when we feel the littleness of man. Thank God, then, if you have been led by a rough road: it is this which has given you your experience of God’s greatness and lovingkindness. (Based on the KJV devotional)

 

Have you ever been pricked by a thorn while trying to imbibe the perfume of a rose? My guess is everyone has. The thorns are part of the stalk of the rose flower. Similarly, when we try to imbibe the perfume of God's word and try to practice it, we also get pricked by the thorns which are a part of our life. They could be derision, opposition and even persecution thorns. Essentially, they will be things which our ex-friend, Satan, will throw at us to keep up his friendship with us, usually things which we are most scared of. Being a friend of our past life, Satan knows us as well as God does, so he knows our weaknesses. He will keep throwing things to prick us, as we try and break that friendship and move away from him. And those thorns are not going to go away anytime soon. According to the Webster dictionary the phrase is an idiom meaning: a person or thing that repeatedly annoys someone or something or causes problems. Paul had a constant thorn, which he prayed for removal three

Some people know the true meaning of the words "God provides", because they have lived with nothing in hand, no idea from where they will meet their daily expense and yet they are able to. Quietly and without fanfare, through some God given providence.   While Gods provision is true for all, these people have lived on the edge of collapse, with nothing in sight except hope for Gods provision, unlike other people who have wealth or jobs or plans which they depend on, not realizing that even those were provided by God. One is not better than the other. We all go through hard times, possibly living on the edge. We may feel let down or that life is unfair, but there is another perspective: it brings about  true dependence on God . Such times remind us of the journey of Israel as they walked to the Promised Land. They were not allowed to store manna as an exercise in trusting Gods daily provision. Why? Ms. Francis Taylor explains it beautifully -  " We take these troubling e