Picture - Joel Reynolds

God is Just and our Justifier.

And God's justice is not merely gracious, but redemptive. It not simply apportions rights, it establishes righteousness. Thus, just as in the Old Testament, the judge is the Saviour. The difference is simply here: in the Old Testament the salvation was more national and temporal, here it is personal and spiritual. But mercy is opposed to justice no more here than in the Old Testament. It is by the forgiveness of sins that God establishes righteousness, and this is the supreme task of justice. Thus it is that God is at the same time "just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus" (Rom 3:26). "He is faithful and righteous (or "just"; see the King James Version) to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 Jn 1:9).


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Scriptures for Counseling - Faith

By Dr. Brian Campbell, from the book- Pearls, Scriptures to Live By


Faith


Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)



We live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)


Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)


Build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. (Jude 1:20)


By faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. (Galatians 5:5)


Fight the good fight of the faith. (I Timothy 6:12)


Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Corinthians 13:5)


Everything that does not come from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)
Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. (1 Corinthians 4:2)


For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. (2 Peter 1:5-7)


Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2)


Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. (Isaiah 11:5)


The LORD preserves the faithful, but the proud he pays back in full. (Psalm 31:23)


For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. (Psalm 37:28)


My heart is steadfast, 0 God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music. (Psalm 57:7)


I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  (2 Timothy 4:7)


Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. (Revelation 2:10)


**Copyright, 2002, Brian Campbell (Permission is granted to copy for personal use only.)

Picture - Joel Reynolds

The Power of Staying Green - David Wilkerson

I was led to read and study Revelation 9, the chapter on the locusts. As I read verse 4, about God’s command to the locusts not to destroy anything green, a thought leaped out at me.

I realized that here was the key to remaining safe in any time of terror: “stay green.” David wrote, “I am like a green olive tree in the house of my God…for ever and ever” (Psalm 52:8).

The “green” that David refers to here signifies spiritual health. It means to flourish, grow, be fruitful. David is telling us, “My health comes from trusting God. I flourish because I turn to him. My trust in him produces spiritual life in me.”

Here is a glorious truth about the power of staying green. “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited” (Jeremiah 17:5-6).

The Lord is warning, “Don’t trust in man. If you put your faith in human power rather than in me, you’ll be cursed.”

Yet, if we put our trust in the Lord, here is what our faith will produce: “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (17:7-8).

As we trust wholly in the Father, we put down roots in his river of health. And his divine strength—luscious, green, spiritual health—flows in us and through us. While everything around us is decaying, we’ll flourish as green trees, healthy and strong. And when the hour of trial comes, we won’t languish or wilt. Instead, our faith will be growing.  More...

Scriptures for Counseling - Abortion

By Dr. Brian Campbell, from Pearls, Scriptures to Live By

Abortion

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. (Psalm 139:13)

Your hands made me and formed me. (Psalm 119:3)

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. (Jeremiah 1:5)

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (Psalm 139:14)

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. (Psalm 139:15-16)

This is what the Lord says - he who made you, who formed you in the womb. (Isaiah 44:2)

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1:41)

From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother's womb you have been my God. (Psalm 22:10)

Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast. (Psalm 22:19)

From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother's womb. I will ever praise you. (Psalm 71:6)

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:16)

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)

I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Selected Topics from... Pearls: Scriptures to live by

**Copyright, 2002, Brian Campbell (Permission is granted to copy for personal use only.)

The Difference Between Hiring and Recruiting - Seth Godin

Bob wonders if there's a difference. I'm pretty sure there is.


Hiring is what you do when you let the world know that you're accepting applications from people looking for a job.


Recruiting is the act of finding the very best person for a job and persuading them to stop doing what they're doing and come join you.


Hiring is easy and fast and is basically a retail operation.


Recruiting is artful and slow and is essentially a direct marketing effort.


Recruiting raises the bar because it demands you have a job worth quitting for. The recruiter doesn't solve an urgent problem for the person being recruited, in fact, they create one. That person already has a job (hence no problem). The problem being created is that until they change over to your job, they'll be unhappy. That's a huge hurdle for a job to overcome, which leads to this key question:


Is your job opening so good you could recruit great people for it?


If not, perhaps you need to work on that.  Read More...

We Got The Go Ahead! - Wayne Cordeiro

The passage begins with the words, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth". Mt. 28:18-20... now GO!



Think of it this way:


A supervisor assembles a team of creative men and women who come up with a gargantuan plan to reach the masses with a message. Publicity, logo wear, concerts, fliers, staffing, radio, television, and much more. The budget would be crazy expensive, but the supervisor didn't say economize. He said, "Imagine!"

So they did!

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How to Lead a Family Devotion - Patrick Morley

How to Lead a Family Devotion - A Look in the Mirror #181 



In 30 years of working with men, no pain men face seems to hurt as much as "child pain." On the other hand, if your children are doing well, all of your other problems will fit into a thimble.

Now that I have two grown, happily married children who are walking with the Lord, I can look back and see what set the stage for their spiritual walks. One VERY important activity was to set aside a time for a brief family devotion at the beginning of most days during the school year. It was not so much the activity itself as the "message" about how important Patsy and I deemed devotions, the discussions that it got our family into, and the spirit of prayer it fostered both then and now.


I wrote up how we did our family devotions for the book, Devotions For Couples (Zondervan). Here is an edited version of that chapter....

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Weekend Picture - Joel Reynolds

Three Steps of Repentance

“Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation…” – 2 Corinthians 7:10

To repent means to change one’s attitude towards sin and God. It’s a change that must occur in both the mind and the heart. 

In Matthew 27:3 Judas repented in his mind but not his heart. In other words, he had a sense of regret or remorse, but he remained in his sin instead of turning to God for forgiveness.

Repentance of the mind and the heart leads to salvation and consists of three steps:

Step 1 – Recognize Your Guilt 

 
The idea here is that we understand who we are and where we stand before God. 1 John 1:8 tells us that “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” While Romans 6:23 tells us the “wages of sin is death”.

The first step in repenting involves understanding that we are sinners and stand under God’s judgment.

Step 2 – Trust That God Will Forgive You

 
In Psalm 51 David wrote, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.”

Repentance is not only acknowledging our sin, it’s also recognizing that God is willing and able to forgive our sin.

We’re promised in Hebrews 8:12 that God will “forgive our wickedness and will remember our sins no more.”

The second step in repenting involves believing that God will forgive us.

Step 3 -Turn From Sin, To God

 
Once we realize that we stand before God guilty of sin, and that He is willing to forgive us, we must then come to Him to receive that forgiveness. We come to God the Father though Jesus Christ, who is God the Son.

John 3:16 declares that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” 1 John 4:10 tells us that Christ is “the propitiation [or payment] for our sins.”

Because Christ paid for our sins, Romans 3:24 tells us that we have been “justified freely” through Him, and we now stand before God innocent.

The final step in repenting involves calling on Christ to save us from the penalty of sin. Acts 2:21 promises that “whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.”

Once we have repented and come to Christ for forgiveness Ephesians 2:19 tells us we are “no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.“

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