“I am glad that you have found the qualities you were looking for in the person you told me about. God puts WHAT HE please WHERE He pleases. He sends us help and light through many different people and circumstances. Should this matter to you? If you see that God is sending you the help, then you will no be so taken up with HOW He sent it. His ways are above
our ways.

Trust HIS way and you will grow in humility and simplicity. The Lord will show you that you have no power in and of yourself. Receive what HE gives and depend on His Spirit, who blows where He wills. (John 8:38) You do not need to know the secrets of God — just be obedient to what He shows you to do.

Thinking too much will distract you. If you become trapped in your thoughts, they will blow out your inward spiritual sense like a wind blowing out a candle. If you keep company with people like this, you will see how dry their hearts are and how far their minds have drifted off center. It is best to stay away from such people.

I also want to warn you about people who appear to have an inward spiritual life. It is easy to mistake a vivid imagination for true spiritual experience. Watch carefully and you will see that they are still improperly attached to outward things. Your wayward desires, left unattended, will lead to obsessions that strangle your inner peace and silence before God. Stay away from people who sound good but never exhibit true fruit of an inward walk. Their talk is deceptive and you will almost always find them restless, fault-finding, and full of their own thoughts.

These spiritual busybodies are annoyed with everything, and are almost always annoying.” from THE SEEKING HEART by Fenelon Good words for your consideration on this Monday, September 19th, 2005.

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 15:13).

Hope is an indispensable quality of life, and yet the cry of humanity seems to be, “Is there no hope?” Perhaps that is the echo of your heart. Dark clouds have invaded your horizon. Boisterous waves threaten to destroy your frail vessel. Friends and family have disappointed you. Dreams lie shattered at your feet. Sickness has invaded your body. All seems hopeless. With God, however, there are no hopeless situations, just those situations about which we grow
hopeless.

Listen to the Lord’s health-giving advice in Matthew 11:28: “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” One of the most trying means by which God accomplishes His purpose in our lives is when we are forced to sit still When our hearts yearn to do something for Him, when we would like to be active witnessing for Christ, when we long to do something important, probably even spectacular, then the Lord Jesus places us in a position of
inactivity, causing us to learn the lesson of quietness and stillness where our hope is found only in Him. Be grateful that God is working out His purpose in your life. Those trials are evidence not of abandonment but of His confidence that this trial will produce glory to His name. Thus you can leave the future in God’s hands without demanding a detailed road map. Real security comes from saying yes to God’s plan for your life. In the challenge of darkness, with waves and
breakers sweeping over you, Jesus brings a calm, a “Hush, be still!” to the human heart. Not only can we hold on, we can be strong in His strength.

As we allow God’s joy and peace to invade our souls, He will cause us to abound in hope instead of helplessness. Everything will be all right! The God of hope guarantees it. It’s not our strength that God needs, but our willingness to use His strength. No situation is beyond the touch of Omnipotence.

Rev. W. Claire Greiner

Scripture Reading: Exodus 7-8; Matthew 15:1-20

from our KESWICK devotional — REAL VICTORY FOR REAL LIFE

Here are the symptoms:

They can drain your energy immediately.
They can cloud any meeting sometimes with just their presence and sour attitude.
They can hijack your time, draining hours at a stretch.
They drag you into their daily dramas and crises.
They can burden you with imagined problems, keeping you from ministering to others with more pressing needs.
They love being dependent and in need.
They contribute little or nothing to the Lord’s work, being professional complainers.

“One of the clearest signs of a true, malignant spiritual hypochondriac is that the carrier refuses to believe he is infected. Most live in denial, assuming the entire community is conspiring against them. They feel unappreciated, unloved, and misunderstood. They consistently feel betrayed by their friends, ministers, and family. And they never realize their condition.”

If you know someone in this condition, or maybe you are suffering from this malady, here are five actions you can take to correct the problem, from the compelling book WHY CHURCHES DIE by Mac Brunson and Ergun Caner (published by Broadman & Holman):

1. Focus on the blessing of God. Make it an obsession to notice the greatness and graciousness of God. In every situation work to discover the hidden positive dimensions rather than dwelling on the problems. Focus on Christ rather than yourself.

2. Change your thought life. Read Philippians 4:8. The term THINK in this verse is an agrarian term that farmers used to describe the method by which a cow chews food. Masticating the food and constantly passing it through their four stomachs, a cow thoroughly chews food. Our thought life is the same. We are commanded to develop the discipline of carefully choosing to concentrate on those edifying things.

3. Surround yourself with joyful believers. Develop relationships with those “ministers of joy” who fill you and lift you to new levels of faith and strength. Remember, their iron will sharpen your iron (Proverbs 27:17)

4. Learn to pray for others. Nothing forces us to get our attention off ourselves more than learning to pray for other people’s burdens. The added blessing of seeing God intervene in people’s lives is mandated by God. Bearing one another’s burden fulfills the law of Christ, according to Galatians 6:2.

5. Get into a ministry now. Christian service not only gives glory to God, but infuses us with a new focus — a focus on others. Good words for you to consider today.

We are living in an age where many in the “body of Christ” in order to reach the post-modern world refuse to teach certain truths because they are afraid of offending the very people they are trying to reach. They shy away from the word “sin,” “the Cross,” “the blood.” One of our dear friends in Christian music was invited to sing at one of America’s leading churches. She was told that she could not sing anything that spoke of the blood of Christ or the Cross. Guess what — she refused to sing there!

Drs. Mac Brunson and Ergun Caner remind us in the compelling book, WHY CHURCHES DIE, that the blood of Christ, “according to the Bible, redeems us, sanctifies us, and enables us to live peaceably with one another.

1. The blood of Christ cleanses us from sin. But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)
2. The blood of Christ obtains our eternal inheritance. He entered the holy of holies once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:12)
3. The blood of Christ cleanses our consciences to serve Him. How much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)
4. The blood of Christ sanctifies us. Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that He might sanctify the people by His own blood. (Hebrews 13:12)
5. The blood of Christ causes us to worship. Therefore, through Him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that confess His name. (Hebrews 13:15)
6. The blood of Christ reconciles all to peace. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross — whether things on earth or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:19-20)

What wonderful TRUTH that unfortunately some will never hear! I am thankful today for the blood of Christ that was shed for me. “ARE YOU WASHED IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB?”

Yesterday I shared with you the wonderful truth that JESUS prays for you. That truth was a special blessing to me yesterday and through the night. In the midst of some exciting times at merica’s KESWICK there are some struggles that are taking place in people’s lives. There is
some unrest at the moment among the men of the Colony — grumblers and complainers. There are some staff that are going through some very difficult personal problems. And there are some issues that have come to light that I need to address today that will be tough to handle.

We had our the first of eight anniversary banquets last night and we pulled in the driveway around 10:45 PM. I decided to check my email and discovered that there were indeed some challenges that I was going to face today. Normally, I chew on this stuff and it impacts my ability to sleep. Last night as I crawled into bed, I reminded myself that there is ONE who never slumbers or sleeps and that HE is the ONE who is interceding for me. The Holy Spirit brought back to mind the verse from 1 Peter 5:7: “Cast ALL your cares upon HIM, for HE cares for you.” I slept!

This morning when I cracked open my devotional “DAILY LIGHT . . . ” which is just Scripture verses compiled for each day (no commentary) — guess what verse was in the middle of the page — 1 Peter 5:7. Listen to what Dr. Warren Wiersbe says in his commentary on 1 Peter: “One of the benefits of our relationship with God is the PRIVILEGE of letting Him take care of our burdens . . . The word translated ‘care’ means ‘anxiety, the state of being pulled apart.’ When circumstances are difficult, it is easy for us to be anxious and worried; but if we are,
we will miss God’s blessing and become poor witnesses to the lost. We need His inward peace if we are going to triumph in the fiery trial and bring glory to His name . . . We must ONCE AND FOR ALL give all our cares — past, present, and future — to the Lord. We must not HAND them to Him piecemeal, keeping those cares that we think WE can handle ourselves. If we keep the ‘little cares’ for ourselves, they will soon become BIG problems! Each time a new burden arises, we must by faith remind the Lord (and ourselves) that we have already turned it over to
Him . . . How does God show His love and care for us when we give our cares to Him? I believe that He performs four wonderful ministries on our behalf.

1. He give us COURAGE to face our cares HONESTLY and not run away (Isaiah 41:10).
2. He gives us the WISDOM to understand the situation (James 1:5).
3. He gives us the STRENGTH to do what we must do (Philippians 4:13).
4. He gives us the FAITH to trust HIM to do the rest (Psalm 37:5).

Some people give God their burdens and expect Him to do EVERYTHING! It is important that we let Him work IN us as well as work FOR us, so that we will be prepared WHEN the answer comes. ‘CAST YOUR BURDEN ON THE LORD and HE WILL SUSTAIN YOU!’ (Psalm 55:22) from THE BIBLE EXPOSITION COMMENTARY by Dr. Warren Wiersbe published by Victor Books. Good words for me and you today.

Over the years I have worked at trying not to make a promise to someone that I would pray for them. Why? I tend to have a poor “rememberer.” What I do try and do is pray for the person right on then so that I do not forget. Years ago, one of my mentors taught me the value of even
praying for someone on the phone. I then ask the Holy Spirit to bring back to my mind the people that I have prayed with. It is a precious privilege to pray with and intercede with others.

It is an encouragement to me when someone comes up to me or drops me a note to let me know that they are praying for me. Often those notes come at “just the right time.” But it is an even greater comfort to be reminded that there is SOMEONE else praying for us — JESUS CHRIST!

As I was reading the Word in my quiet time last week, two verses stood out from the DAILY LIGHT ON THE DAILY PATH that reminded me of HIS prayer ministry in my life. There is a time in Peter’s life when Jesus reminded him that Satan had asked for Peter and wanted to “sift him as wheat.” And then Jesus says, “BUT I HAVE PRAYED FOR YOU, THAT YOUR FAITH
SHOULD NOT FAIL.” (Luke 22:31-32)
The writer to the book of Hebrews reminds us that the ONE who sits at the right hand of the Father, “He always lives to make intercession for you!” (Hebrews 7:25) He is praying for you today, my friend! WOW! As our friend, Dr. Wendell Calder says, “That ought to get your exciter going or there is something wrong with your exciter!”

“Jesus Christ carries on intercession for us in heaven; the Holy Spirit carries on intercession in us on earth; and we the saints, have to carry on intercession for all men!” — Oswald Chambers

Good words to ponder today!

1. Am I grieved by the sins that seem to ensnare me?
2. Do I lay my heart concerns before God as the only one who can cure me?
3. When was the last time I sensed the call of God in my life?
4. Do I scoff at those who speak of hearing God’s convictions and repent, as if I consider this a silly exercise?
5. Do I find myself increasingly uncomfortable around strong believers and even mock them because their lives make me feel guilty?
6. Do I often feel a twinge at the invitation hour and try to convince myself that stepping forward is an act of weakness? Do I wait for the feeling to subside?
7. Do I justify my ongoing sin by saying, “This is the way everyone lives”?

“A hardened heart, spiritually and physically, is no laughing matter. We do not accept the forgiveness of our sins purchased on Calvary and then scorn the one who calls us, convicts us, and challenges us.” If you are not convinced, read the biblical account of Nabal in 1 Samuel 25:1-39.

from “WHY CHURCHES DIE . . . Diagnosing Letha Poisons in the Body of Christ” by Mac Brunson and Ergun Caner, published by Broadman & Holman

It was published in our daily devotional, REAL VICTORY FOR REAL LIFE. SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

“Heaven and earth may pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” (Luke 21:33)

Our nation will never forget the day that changed our lives forever. Little did we realize how personal September 11th would be for the ministry of America’s KESWICK. Like many ministries, we were getting ready to begin a service of remembrance for our community, staff and the men of the Colony of Mercy. As I was preparing to walk to the Auditorium, I received word that this tragedy had impacted our ministry.

Don and Jean Peterson were actively involved with the ministry. In addition to being conference attendees, both were burdened for the Colony ministry. Don served for a number of years as a volunteer counselor and Jean became a faithful prayer warrior. Seeing Don’s passion and vision for the ministry, we invited Don to serve on our Board of Trustees. He was a man of purpose, determination, integrity and commitment.

The Petersons were scheduled to leave for California for a family reunion on the morning of September 11. Arriving early at the airport, they were bumped to an earlier flight. They were assigned to Flight 93 that crashed on a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Several months after the tragedy we heard that a Bible had been found at the crash site. Selfishly we were hoping that it belonged to Don or Jean. When the rescue teams arrived at the crash site, there were only two things visible – a tire and Don Peterson’s Bible. Tucked inside Don’s Bible was a list of men from the Colony of Mercy that he would be praying for during the trip. Don loved the Word of God. He believed that the Word was true and that it could change and transform lives. How about you? Do you love the Word of God? Are you spending time each day reading, meditating and memorizing the Word? It will change and transform your life.

Bill Welte

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 10-12; 2 Corinthians 4

Proverbs 4: 20-22 “Dear friend, listen well to my words; tune your ears to my voice. Keep my message in plain view at all times. Concentrate! Learn it by heart! Those who discover these words live, really live; body and soul, they’re bursting with health. GUARD YOUR HEART; that’s where life starts. Don’t talk out of both ides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right or left; leave evil in
the dust.” (THE MESSAGE)

GUARD YOUR HEART
Words and Music By Jon Mohr

What appears to be a harmless glance
Can turn to romance, and home are divided.
Feelings that should never have been
awakened within tearing the heart in two;
Listen, I beg you of you,
Guard your heart,
Guard your heart,
Don’t trade it for treasure,
Don’t give it away.
Guard your heart,
As payment for pleasure — it’s a high price to pay.
For a soul that remains sincere,
with a conscience clear,
Guard your heart!

The human heart is easily swayed,
and often betrayed at the hand of emotion.
You dare not leave the outcome to chance,
We must walk in advance or live with agony.
Guard your heart,
Guard your heart,
Don’t trade it for treasure,
Don’t give it away.
Guard your heart,
As payment for pleasure — it’s a high price to pay.
For a soul that remains sincere,
with a conscience clear,
Guard your heart!

Copyright 1989 Birdwing Music

Good words to ponder today!

I may never be as clever as my neighbor down the street,
I may never be as wealthy as some other men I meet.
I may never have the glory that some other men have had,
But I’ve just got to be successful as that little fellow’s dad.

There are certain dreams I cherish, that I’d like to see come true,
There are thing I would like to do.
There are things I would like to accomplish before my earthly life is through.
But the task I’ve set my heart on is to guide a little lad,
To make myself successful as that little fellow’s dad.

Oh, I may never come to glory, I may never father gold,
And when my business life is over, I may be considered a failure as told.
But the task I’ve set my heart on is to guide a little lad,
To make myself successful as that little fellow’s dad.

It’s the one job that I dream of,
The takes I think of most,
For if I fail that little fellow, I have nothing else to boast.
For the wealth and fame I’d gather,
All my fortune would be sad,
If I fail to be successful as that little fellow’s dad.

— Author Unknown

Good words to ponder today from the book “It’s Easier to Build Boys Than to Mend Men” by S. Truett Cathy