Rhythm of Faith

Do not deceive yourselves; no one makes a fool of God. You will reap exactly what you plant. The Scriptures plainly tell us that we will reap what we sow. Literally, this applies to farming and planting crops. It also applies to giving money and being generous. But did you know that this principle also applies to the way we treat others? We can sow and reap attitudes and words as well as a crops or finances. The devil loves to keep us busy thinking selfishly, treating loyal friends as unimportant, sowing words of strife in our families, and thinking negative thoughts about bosses, pastors, etc. The devil wants us to sow bad seed in every single relationship. So many people behave this way and then wonder why people don't like them or treat them the way they want to be treated. The answer is simple, they are reaping what they've sown! Let me ask you, what are you sowing today? No matter the person, no matter the relationship, sow love, forgiveness, kindness, and pati...

This is excellent and really gets you thinking about what will happen in Heaven. 17-year-old Brian Moore had only a short time to write something for a class. The subject was what Heaven was like. "I wowed 'em," he later told his father, Bruce. It's a killer. It's the bomb. It's the best thing I ever wrote." It also was the last. Brian's parents had forgotten about the essay when a cousin found it while cleaning out the teenager's locker at Teays Valley High School in Pickaway County Brian had been dead only hours, but his parents desperately wanted every piece of his life near them, notes from classmates and teachers, and his homework. Only two months before, he had handwritten the essay about encountering Jesus in a file room full of cards detailing every moment of the teen's life. But it was only after Brian's death that Beth and Bruce Moore realized that their son had described his view of heaven. It makes such an impact th...

Margaret Magdalen Jasper (1752–1789) doesn’t have a Wikipedia page. Google her name and you’ll find almost nothing about her life. What she looked like is a mystery. She wasn’t famous in her day, and she’s still not famous in our day. Her ordinary life was filled with disappointments, the kind of life history tends to forget. But her story is worth telling. Margaret lived in England, and there she was acquainted with loss. Her father died when she was only two years old. Her only brother later died in war and was buried in foreign soil. And her mother died in Margaret’s 30th year, at which point she writes in her diary that she was “left an orphan in this perplexing world of sin and sorrow.” She had no husband. When Margaret’s hopes for marriage failed to materialize by age 24, she resigned herself to employment as a household servant in an 18th century London home. In her diary at the time of her decision, she writes, “To go out in the capacity of a servant, is a trial.” For Mar...

And said, verily I(Jesus) say into you,Except ye be converted and become as little children,ye shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven(Matt 18:3) The uniqueness of a child's innocence cannot be overemphasized as even with distinctive characters,their chain of thought is similar leaving their hope,trust & belief in their parents alone or anyone whom their parents permit.Transformation which occurs at adulthood is expected causing trust and beliefs to be placed in other things. Similarly,growth is inevitable in our spiritual life but do we discredit the giver of such growth? In emphasis of such need for a childlike faith,we need to accept that we need God's grace to supplement our faith as evident in Mark 9:24-Immediately the boys father exclaimed,'I do believe,help me to overcome my unbelief'(KJV).In another translation- 'I do have faith but not enough,help me to have more'. Jesus was regarded by the Jews as the 'Poorest King that ever lived' but Hi...

How often do we cry out for security and strength? As a parent, probably often! There will be times we will have to be led to a rock higher than ourselves so we can see beyond our present struggles to the future God has in store for us. Sometimes we have to be lifted up to see life from God's eternal perspective. In this passage, David recognizes the higher "rock" as a place of safety and power and he knows only God can lead him there. Parenting can sometimes make you feel faint-hearted, but God wants you to use those times to pray to Him for security and strength. James 1:5 says that those who ask will be given wisdom. Wisdom is one way God lifts you up to the higher rock. Remember, you are never confined to your present situation. Trust God to lift you to a higher place and give you His eternal perspective! Credit: Parenting by design Written by Kachi

1 John 4:18 18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear… Experts tell us that babies have two natural fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. A study on fear was conducted on 500 adults of varying ages, backgrounds and lifestyles. The results showed that they shared some 7,000 different fears. This means that they must have learnt 6,998 fears since they were born. That is a lot of fears! Actually, our bodies are designed for faith. Fear was foreign to man until Adam sinned against God. For the first time, Adam knew fear, and he hid from God and said, “I heard Your voice… I was afraid… I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:10) Since then, man has been living in the realm of fear — fear of the future, fear of what others might say, fear of diseases, fear of flying… Actually, every fear is born out of the feeling of being cut off from God. If you think that God is still mad at you, that He is out to punish you, how can you have faith that everything will be al...

My dear friends, we are now God's children, but it is not yet clear what we shall become. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is. (1 John 3:2 GNT) Spiritual maturity is neither instant nor automatic; it is a gradual, progressive development that will take the rest of your life. You are a work in progress. Your spiritual transformation in developing the character of Jesus will take the rest of your life, and even then it won't be completed here on earth. It will only be finished when you get to heaven or when Jesus returns. At that point, whatever unfinished work on your character is left will be wrapped up. The Bible says that when we are finally able to see Jesus perfectly, we will become perfectly like him: "We can't even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is." (1 John 3:2 NLT) Much confusion...

Exodus 14:15–16 15: And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. 16: But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it... The problem with the body of Christ today is not that we are not praying. We are praying. But many of us are praying desperate prayers. We are praying, “God, help… God, please… God, do something about my problem!” If you are smiling a little by now, most likely, you know about such prayers and might have prayed a couple yourself. My friend, God does not want you to pray pleading prayers all the time. He wants you to use the authority He has given you to pray powerful prayers, to boldly command and to “stretch out your hand” and see miracles happen. When Moses stood before the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army in hot pursuit, the Bible tells us that he cried out to God. But God told him, “Why do you cry to Me?” There is a time for you to cry out to God and there is a time for you to use you...

Exodus 3:14 14: And God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”… Whatever your challenge is today, whether it is physical, emotional, financial or marital, the great I Am declares to you: “I am to you what you need Me to be.” Do you need healing? He says, “I am the Lord who heals you. (Exodus 15:26) And as you believe Me, you will see your healing manifest thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” Are you groping in the dark, not knowing what to do? He says, “I am the light of the world. (John 8:12) When you walk in Me, you will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Are you looking for a way out of a bad situation? He says, “I am your deliverer. I will reach down from on high, take hold of your hand and draw you out of the deep waters.” (Psalm 18:2, 16) Are you wondering if there is more to life than merely existing from day to day? He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. (John 11:25) I came to give you life. And where there is life, there cannot be death. Y...

Mark 4:8 “But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” Perhaps you have marveled at God’s instantaneous healing miracles. Perhaps you believed that He would do the same for you. But now, when you see your own healing taking so long to manifest, you are tempted to give up. My friend, when the manifestation does not come instantaneously, we are not to be discouraged because Jesus let us in on a secret when He shared the parable of the sower. (Mark 4:3–20) The parable of the sower teaches us that once we receive God’s Word into our hearts regarding our situation, God’s blessings will manifest in progression. When we receive our thirtyfold manifestation, it means that 70 per cent of that condition is still there. But some of us give up at thirtyfold because we still feel more pain than relief. We need to realize that we are thirtyfold better than before, and our sixtyfold is c...

Those whom God had already chosen he also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son would be the first among many believers. (Romans 8:29 GNT) In all of creation, only human beings are made in God's image. This is a great privilege and it gives us dignity. We don't know all this phrase covers, but we do know some of the aspects it includes: like God, we are spiritual beings - our spirits are immortal and will outlast our earthly bodies; we are intellectual - we can think, reason, and solve problems; we are relational - we can give and receive real love; and we have a moral consciousness - we can discern right from wrong, which makes us accountable to God. But the image is incomplete and has been damaged and distorted by sin. So God sent Jesus on a mission to restore the full image that we have lost. What does the full "image and likeness" of God look like? It looks like Jesus Christ! People often use the phrase "like father, like son" to re...

Mark 5:28 28For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” With a crowd thronging Him, Jesus was touched by a lot of people that day (Mark 5:31), but only the touch of one woman drew a response from Him. And her touch sparked off instant healing in her body, releasing her from a sickness that had plagued her for 12 years. Do you want to know how to touch God and receive the miracle you need? When the woman heard that Jesus was coming by her village, she said to herself, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” On her way to see Jesus, she probably told herself many times, “If I touch His clothes, I will be healed. I will be made whole.” We don’t know how long she had been saying that to herself, but she was convinced that Jesus would heal her. If you are sick, convince yourself that Jesus is your healer and that by His stripes you are healed. You don’t need to convince God. He is not the one who needs to be persuaded because His blessi...