A Great Testimony
By Dr. Jack Graham
This week's topic: Your Testimony
As a Christian, God expects you and me to be productive. What a great example we have of this in the fourth chapter of Nehemiah. Once the plot to stop the work of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem was foiled, everybody went back to work with renewed energy.
"Half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail." - Nehemiah 4:16.
Even those who weren't actively rebuilding the walls kept armor and weapons ready in case the enemy attacked. Nobody sat around idly! First Corinthians 15:58 tell us to "be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord...."
And what exactly does "abounding in the work of the Lord" mean? For one, it means we're actively looking for ways to serve God and serve others. It means we're so busy thinking about what we can do next for the Kingdom that we have little time to think about ourselves, worry, and become discouraged!
Today I want to challenge you to go out of your way to serve someone. And don't just do it to do it. Let that person know you're helping them out because your service pleases the Lord you love!
It will be a great testimony of a life that's sold out for Christ. Look for ways to serve and love others today...and every day!
Scripture Of The Day: "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." - 1 Corinthians 15:58v
Dr. Jack Graham is the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, one of the nation’s largest, most dynamic congregations. The author of numerous books, Dr. Graham is the founder of PowerPoint® Ministries, a radio and television broadcast ministry. For more information about Dr. Graham, log onto http://www.powerpoint.org. …
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Battle Scars That Do Not Disappear
Battle Scars That Do Not Disappear
By Cory Bradley
This week's topic: Your Testimony
Sometimes (if I can just be honest), many of us desire a gospel that is way too pretty. It seems like no one today really wants the battle scars and wounds that often come along with having victory in Christ. Many of us desire to go through life unscathed and untouched; void of any evidence that we have been in the fight.
In my journey with weight management, I endured arguably the toughestseason of my life; when I was really heavy there was so much shame because everybody could see the pain, the anxiety, the fear, and the loneliness I felt because it showed up around my waistline.
As a child, I was often alienated and picked on. Many of my peers called me sissy and gay because my mannerisms reflected the world I understood which was richly influenced by nurturing women. And since I didn’t have a man in my life I could respect and wanted to model, I emulated the women in my life and patterned my life after feminine expressions.
(Sidenote - Please know that every young man raised by single mothers doesn’t have the same experience. Single mothers, we are proud of you! Love you mommy!)
This devotional is especially for those readers out there who believe that their testimony is not as pretty, neat, or tidy as those others tend to brag about. I used to struggle and feel ostracized with that same feeling. Until I read about someone who once shared my story.
In Genesis 32:22-32v, you will find the story of Jacob and the struggle he has one night with God. A struggle and a wrestling match that ultimately left him with a testimony.
I define testimony as an indelible impression and proof that God has COME to you and God is NEAR you. A testimony is evidence that God Almighty has had His hand in and on your life, and what a heavy hand our God has!! When presses down upon our lives, God’s hand tends to break up those things we have relied upon for so long.
That’s what happened to Jacob. God touched Jacob and his human frailty and weakness was exposed. And when that experience passed, Jacob was left with a clear reminder that he had been with God.
A limp.
{Come on God, a limp that everybody can see? Aren’t you Jehovah Rophe, my healer? You’re supposed to make the symptoms disappear, not create new ones!!}
I can just imagine poor old Jacob after returning from that encounter with God. The taunts. The stares. The endless barrage of questions like, “What’s wrong with Him? Why does he “walk” like that? You know Jacob, you can go to the doctor and get that fixed?”
Perhaps today you may be struggling with the fact you’re not like everyone else, or that everywhere you go and walk, you feel the effects of a constant struggle with God.
You’re slower than everyone else.
It takes more effort for you to progress on your journey.
If so, understand that your limp serves as crucial evidence that God is near.
Like Jacob, you share a special experience with God that can always serve as a reference point of when He met you, blessed you and confirmed your identity. If you are in a struggle today, your weakness is evidence that God has come to you and He has touched you.
Do not allow others’ perception of you make you feel unworthy. We serve a Savior that had to endure a few struggles of His own. The nails in His hands and wounds in His side are evidence that He also experienced pain just as we do. But despite His scars, He overcome death, hell, and the grave.
To all those struggling as they read this devotional today, know that as long as you stay in the struggle, so will God. Embrace your testimony now.
Scripture Of The Day: "Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." - Genesis 32:28v (NIV)
Cory Bradley serves as the worship leader for New Birth Charlotte, where Bishop Terrell Murphy serves as Senior Pastor. Cory, who has worked with artists such as LaDonna Mole and William Murphy III, is an emerging worship leader and a explorer of the transformative power worship can have in every believer. For more about Cory, visit http://www.newbirthcharlotte.org.…
Subscribe to receive the SF Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning!
By Cory Bradley
This week's topic: Your Testimony
Sometimes (if I can just be honest), many of us desire a gospel that is way too pretty. It seems like no one today really wants the battle scars and wounds that often come along with having victory in Christ. Many of us desire to go through life unscathed and untouched; void of any evidence that we have been in the fight.
In my journey with weight management, I endured arguably the toughestseason of my life; when I was really heavy there was so much shame because everybody could see the pain, the anxiety, the fear, and the loneliness I felt because it showed up around my waistline.
As a child, I was often alienated and picked on. Many of my peers called me sissy and gay because my mannerisms reflected the world I understood which was richly influenced by nurturing women. And since I didn’t have a man in my life I could respect and wanted to model, I emulated the women in my life and patterned my life after feminine expressions.
(Sidenote - Please know that every young man raised by single mothers doesn’t have the same experience. Single mothers, we are proud of you! Love you mommy!)
This devotional is especially for those readers out there who believe that their testimony is not as pretty, neat, or tidy as those others tend to brag about. I used to struggle and feel ostracized with that same feeling. Until I read about someone who once shared my story.
In Genesis 32:22-32v, you will find the story of Jacob and the struggle he has one night with God. A struggle and a wrestling match that ultimately left him with a testimony.
I define testimony as an indelible impression and proof that God has COME to you and God is NEAR you. A testimony is evidence that God Almighty has had His hand in and on your life, and what a heavy hand our God has!! When presses down upon our lives, God’s hand tends to break up those things we have relied upon for so long.
That’s what happened to Jacob. God touched Jacob and his human frailty and weakness was exposed. And when that experience passed, Jacob was left with a clear reminder that he had been with God.
A limp.
{Come on God, a limp that everybody can see? Aren’t you Jehovah Rophe, my healer? You’re supposed to make the symptoms disappear, not create new ones!!}
I can just imagine poor old Jacob after returning from that encounter with God. The taunts. The stares. The endless barrage of questions like, “What’s wrong with Him? Why does he “walk” like that? You know Jacob, you can go to the doctor and get that fixed?”
Perhaps today you may be struggling with the fact you’re not like everyone else, or that everywhere you go and walk, you feel the effects of a constant struggle with God.
You’re slower than everyone else.
It takes more effort for you to progress on your journey.
If so, understand that your limp serves as crucial evidence that God is near.
Like Jacob, you share a special experience with God that can always serve as a reference point of when He met you, blessed you and confirmed your identity. If you are in a struggle today, your weakness is evidence that God has come to you and He has touched you.
Do not allow others’ perception of you make you feel unworthy. We serve a Savior that had to endure a few struggles of His own. The nails in His hands and wounds in His side are evidence that He also experienced pain just as we do. But despite His scars, He overcome death, hell, and the grave.
To all those struggling as they read this devotional today, know that as long as you stay in the struggle, so will God. Embrace your testimony now.
Scripture Of The Day: "Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." - Genesis 32:28v (NIV)
Cory Bradley serves as the worship leader for New Birth Charlotte, where Bishop Terrell Murphy serves as Senior Pastor. Cory, who has worked with artists such as LaDonna Mole and William Murphy III, is an emerging worship leader and a explorer of the transformative power worship can have in every believer. For more about Cory, visit http://www.newbirthcharlotte.org.…
Subscribe to receive the SF Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning!
God Will Use Your Test to create your Testimony!
God Will Use Your Test To Create Your Testimony!
By Pastor Paula White
This week's topic: Your Testimony
God’s purposes cannot miscarry. God will never fail; He will never falter. And He will be revealed through a remnant that will rise up – that is, in fact, already rising up – to reveal His image, His glory, and His will on earth.
But that remnant will go through things. That remnant will be tested. That remnant will experience loss, trial, shake-up, chaos, and confusion…as God brings changes to our world. That remnant will have a testimony of God’s power of transformation, salvation, and redemption.
If you are being tested today…it’s because God will be using your testimony tomorrow!
We are in a very strategic, critical time in the body of Christ. Anyone and everyone with any spiritual discernment at all can see that we are in transition – that it’s not like it used to be. We’ve are in a different place.
God is raising up a remnant out of the crevices, the darkness. If you are being tested…going through changes…experiencing a shake-up…and through it all, you are still hungrily seeking what it is He has to say – following His Word… and standing (-- or kneeling -- or laid out on the floor in prayer!) in the face of every attack of the enemy of your soul…then you are part of that remnant.
And right now He is positioning you for destiny…because He is about to have His grandest display of glory on the earth – and you are it! He has chosen you! And your test will become part of the testimony He will use so that others might see His glory… His faithfulness…His sovereignty…His grace – in your life.
God is taking us through a process where those who will rise up to the test will be purified and perfected…they will have persevered – and come forth very powerful.
God is raising up a people – His People – and they will represent His company. It is a heavenly summons…this is not the beckon or the call of a man. This is a moment in God that He chose, He observed, and He reserved. He placed and He planted you in the earth, and heaven has now summoned you: it is an upward drawing by the Holy Spirit to the top of Mount Zion. Zion is a place…and Zion is a people! And the people of Zion will remain steadfast to share the glory of God and His will -- through their wisdom… …their love…their forgiveness …their testimony.
So, as part of His remnant of Zion, begin today, to accept your test as part of walking in the destiny He has summoned you for. And no matter what these days, times or seasons look like, continue to stand firm on His Word and His promise…and you will see God use your test to create your testimony…to bring forth His purposes and His will in your life and on our earth!
Scripture Of The Day: "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God." - 2 Timothy 1:8v
A life coach, author, and highly sought after motivational speaker, Pastor Paula White is the host of her own television program—Paula Today, which reaches an audience of 2.3 billion people worldwide, spearheading a number of global humanitarian efforts. Her mission in life is to Transform Lives, Heal Hearts and Win Souls. Visit http://www.paulawhite.org.…
By Pastor Paula White
This week's topic: Your Testimony
God’s purposes cannot miscarry. God will never fail; He will never falter. And He will be revealed through a remnant that will rise up – that is, in fact, already rising up – to reveal His image, His glory, and His will on earth.
But that remnant will go through things. That remnant will be tested. That remnant will experience loss, trial, shake-up, chaos, and confusion…as God brings changes to our world. That remnant will have a testimony of God’s power of transformation, salvation, and redemption.
If you are being tested today…it’s because God will be using your testimony tomorrow!
We are in a very strategic, critical time in the body of Christ. Anyone and everyone with any spiritual discernment at all can see that we are in transition – that it’s not like it used to be. We’ve are in a different place.
God is raising up a remnant out of the crevices, the darkness. If you are being tested…going through changes…experiencing a shake-up…and through it all, you are still hungrily seeking what it is He has to say – following His Word… and standing (-- or kneeling -- or laid out on the floor in prayer!) in the face of every attack of the enemy of your soul…then you are part of that remnant.
And right now He is positioning you for destiny…because He is about to have His grandest display of glory on the earth – and you are it! He has chosen you! And your test will become part of the testimony He will use so that others might see His glory… His faithfulness…His sovereignty…His grace – in your life.
God is taking us through a process where those who will rise up to the test will be purified and perfected…they will have persevered – and come forth very powerful.
God is raising up a people – His People – and they will represent His company. It is a heavenly summons…this is not the beckon or the call of a man. This is a moment in God that He chose, He observed, and He reserved. He placed and He planted you in the earth, and heaven has now summoned you: it is an upward drawing by the Holy Spirit to the top of Mount Zion. Zion is a place…and Zion is a people! And the people of Zion will remain steadfast to share the glory of God and His will -- through their wisdom… …their love…their forgiveness …their testimony.
So, as part of His remnant of Zion, begin today, to accept your test as part of walking in the destiny He has summoned you for. And no matter what these days, times or seasons look like, continue to stand firm on His Word and His promise…and you will see God use your test to create your testimony…to bring forth His purposes and His will in your life and on our earth!
Scripture Of The Day: "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God." - 2 Timothy 1:8v
A life coach, author, and highly sought after motivational speaker, Pastor Paula White is the host of her own television program—Paula Today, which reaches an audience of 2.3 billion people worldwide, spearheading a number of global humanitarian efforts. Her mission in life is to Transform Lives, Heal Hearts and Win Souls. Visit http://www.paulawhite.org.…
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