Deliver Us From Evil

It's not hard to find evil. We can go looking for it, but, even without our assistance, it seeks us out. In big and small ways it seems simply a part of our lives and our world. However, when confronted by the big acts of horror, we are reminded--if we have had opportunity to forget--of the real magnitude of the problem of evil.
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Missed church? Download the godcast | CNET News.com

Missed church? Download the godcast | CNET News.com: "Kyle Lewis missed church one Sunday last month. But the 25-year-old did not miss the sermon.

Lewis, who regularly attends services of the National Community Church in Alexandria, Va., later listened to the sermon while he was at the gym, through a recording he had downloaded to his iPod. Instead of listening to the rock music his gym usually plays, he heard his pastor's voice."

Change The Word?

The Bible, God's written Word, changes lives. Its message of salvation makes the most profound change, of course, but Scripture can also change the way we treat others. It can provide a firm foundation for society with its clear teachings on institutions such as marriage, family, and the church.

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What is the purpose of life?

In an interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, author of The Purpose
Driven Life, Rick Warren said:


People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond, In a
nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last
forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is
going to stop, and that will be the end of my body - but not the end of
me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend
trillion of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act, the dress
rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in
eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that
out, life isn't going to make sense. Life is a series of problems:
Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one or you're
getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is
more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more
interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life
happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal
of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ-likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the
toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life
was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you got to the
mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than
life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails
on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and
something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life,
there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter
how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can
thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your
problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into
self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of
the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself
and onto God and others. We discovered quickly that in spite of the
prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal
Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet
God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping
other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to
people...You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of
life.

Spiritism and Revolution

He answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, . . . and thy neighbour as thyself. Luke 10:27.


As the youth go out into the world to encounter its allurements to sin--the passion for money getting, for amusement and indulgence, for display, luxury, and extravagance, the overreaching, fraud, robbery, and ruin--what are the teachings there to be met?

Spiritualism asserts that men are unfallen demigods; that 'each mind will judge itself'; that 'true knowledge places men above all law'; that 'all sins committed are innocent'; for 'whatever is, is right,' and 'God doth not condemn.' The basest of human beings it represents as in heaven, and highly exalted there. Thus it declares to all men, 'It matters not what you do; live as you please, heaven is your home.' Multitudes are thus led to believe that desire is the highest law, that license is liberty, and that man is accountable only to himself.

With such teaching given at the very outset of life, when impulse is strongest, and the demand for self-restraint and purity is most urgent, where are the safeguards of virtue? what is to prevent the world from becoming a second Sodom?

All the same time anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law, not only divine, but human. The centralizing of wealth and power; the vast combinations for the enriching of the few at the expense of the many; the combinations of the poorer classes for the defense of their interests and claims; . . . the world-wide dissemination of the same teachings that led to the French Revolution--all are tending to involve the whole world in a struggle similar to that which convulsed France.

Such are the influences to be met by the youth of today. To stand amidst such upheavals they are now to lay the foundations of character.

In every generation and in every land the true foundation and pattern for character building have been the same. The divine law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, . . . and thy neighbour as thyself" (Luke 10:27), the great principle made manifest in the character and life of our Savior, is the only secure foundation and the only sure guide.




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In His Image

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This week's Verse II Ponder

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. - II Timothy 1:7

This weeks quote....

Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. - C.S. Lewis

Site reboot...

Hi, I have not been posting for awhile but I am starting up again with a more varied palette of content that will include quotes, artwork, verses and of course devotionals. The devotionals will be from various scources. The quotes and artwork and poems if I can find any will be weekly.

be blessed,
Yorkali

Our Mysterious God

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past . . . , has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. —Hebrews 1:1-2


In today's Scripture, we read that a mysterious and awesome visitor appeared to Manoah and his wife (Samson's parents). When Manoah asked, "What is Your name?" the visitor didn't answer the question directly but instead "ascended in the flame of the altar" (Judges 13:17-20). Then Manoah knew he had seen God in human form.

Who can understand such a God—the God who wrote the 3-billion-letter software code in the DNA molecule of every human cell? Who can fully comprehend the God who knows everything, even our inner thoughts? Yet many Old Testament saints knew and loved this God. They experienced the joy of His grace and forgiveness, even though they didn't completely understand how a holy God could forgive their sins.

As Christians, we too stand in awe before the majesty and mystery of an incomprehensible God. But we have a great advantage because we see Him revealed in Jesus, who said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). And when Jesus hung on the cross, He revealed God's compassion and love, for He died there for us.

lnk