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Some of us would love to be rich and not be in any need for the rest of our lives. But can riches, or even the longing for riches, hurt your relationship with God. The answer is clearly yes. The first passage we will look at is in Proverbs 30:7-9 7Two things I asked of You, Do not refuse me before I die: 8Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, 9That I not be full and deny You and say, "Who is the LORD?" Or that I not be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God. In verse 8 Agur actually prays that God would not give him riches. Why? Agur was concerned about how he would react if he was no longer dependent on God to have his needs met. In verse 9 he foresees the possibility of becoming full and denying God. Even if we don't have riches, just longing after wealth can stunt our Christian growth. One passage that warns us about our growth being stunted is "The Parable of the Sower" This parable is found in more than one Gospel but today we will look at a portion found in Mark chapter 4. There is no getting around it. Notice that ".... the deceitfulness of riches..." is listed among things that will keep the Word of God from bearing fruit in your life. 19but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Also when our priority is to get wealthy we are setting up an idol in our heart. It can consume us and steal away our love for God. In fact our love for God can be replaced with despising Him or even hating Him. Matthew 6:24 24"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and wealth. Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" (www.lockman.org)

Today I would like to talk about ungratefulness. It can discourage those who are serving God. And it can be a discouragement within relationships as well. The passage we are going to discuss is Luke 17:11-19. I'll start by giving a brief summary of the text but please follow along in your Bible too. Jesus enter a village in which ten leprous men cried out to Him for help. Jesus sent them to the priests to be seen by them. And while heading there they were all healed. All ten received a tremendous blessing. But only one turned back to thank Jesus. The enemy would like to use the ungratefulness of people to discourage the good impact you are having on others. He might whisper in your ear and say, "You're not making a difference. You are not a blessing to anybody. If you were, wouldn't they tell you so. But, look no one is thanking you, or giving you positive feedback, so you must not be making a difference." Going by this passage the exact opposite may be true. So don't judge your effectiveness based on the response of people. And don't have your joy dependent on that feedback. Practice love and rejoice in the love you show. Rejoice independent of external encouragement. Even if there are no thanks at all still rejoice. In addition encourage yourself with this thought. My effectiveness may be more than I realize. My impact, like this passage, may significantly exceed the feedback I receive. Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" (www.lockman.org)

Here is an easy way to get the Word of God in you everyday. You can listen to the entire Bible in one years time. Try listening to today's Audio Bible clip and then tell everyone what you thought. Enjoy and God bless http://nasb-audio-bible-in-a-year.blogspot.com/2011/04/audio-bible-for-april-19.html

Are you weary and heavy laden? God wants to give you rest Matthew 11:28-30 28"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Are you weary and heavy-laden? Do you want to find rest for your soul? The one who promises you this rest is Jesus. The starting point of that rest is accepting him into your heart as Lord and Savior. You need to accept Jesus into your heart as Lord meaning that with His help you will turn away from sin and learn to walk in obedience to the Bible. You need to accept Jesus into your heart as Savior so your sins can be forgiven. If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and would like to do so now then please pray with me, " God I know that I am a sinner. And I know I can't enter Heaven unless my sins are forgiven by your son Jesus. Jesus I ask you into my heart as Savior and Lord. Forgive me all my sins and help me to turn away from sin and obey what your Bible teaches." If you just prayed that prayer please contact me I would love to hear the good news. Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" ( www.lockman.org )

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Today we will talk about God's unwillingness to answer the prayers of those who stubbornly reject Him. Please follow along in the Bible. We will be in Proverbs chapter 1:20-33 In verses 22-23 God calls out to three different groups of unsaved people. He calls out to the the naive, the scoffer and the fool. God expresses willingness to accept them and teach them His ways if they would listen and obey. But verses 24-25 shows that these people didn't have any willingness to obey. And verses 26-27 show one consequence of their actions. Trouble will certainly overtake them. Some of the words used to describe their coming trouble are: calamity, dread, distress and anguish. And there will be an additional consequence. God will be unwilling to answer their prayers and help them in their distress. Their prayers will go unanswered and their waywardness will ruin them. ( Please note that there are times when the ruin of the wicked is delayed. Sometimes the wicked flourish and even prosper before their ruin comes. See Psalm 73) I think it is important to understand a little bit more about God refusing to answer their prayers. The prayers of these people were coming from hearts that wanted nothing to do with God. The use of the word "all" in verses 25 and 30 shows their wholehearted rejection of God. Those verses mention that they, "... neglected all my counsel;" and they "... spurned all my reproof." So when these people that reject God seek Him in prayer their prayers are rejected too. Why? Because the sole purpose of their seeking God was to escape their trouble. They didn't want a relationship with Him. They wanted a change in their circumstances but not a change in their sinful conduct. And as a result of being stubbornly disobedient, God would not answer their prayers when distress came upon them. Is there any hope for the one who rejects God and has calamity on its way? Is there any hope for the ones whose prayers won't get answered? The answer is yes to both questions! First lets talk about the calamity aspect. If a person seeks God with a repentant heart then God may change His mind concerning the coming distress. Remember what happened in the book of Jonah. God sent Jonah to warn Nineveh that He was about to overthrow it. And the people of Nineveh believed there was calamity coming and repented of their sins. And when God saw that they turned from their evil ways He changed His mind. God did not send the calamity upon them that He had planned. The same applies to unanswered prayer too. If a individual stops rejecting God and chooses to listen and obey then the Lord will open His ears to that persons prayers. Jesus talked about prayers being answered when a person was abiding in Him and God's Word was made so much a part of him that he would live by it. Jesus said it this way in John 15:7 7"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. But the first step in order to achieve the above solutions is to receive Jesus into your heart as Savior and Lord. If you want to do that and get things right with God today then go to this link. "What must I do to go to Heaven? " God bless Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" (www.lockman.org)

Today we will talk about the occasion where Peter denied Jesus. I will be paraphrasing and quoting a small portion of the passage, but its a good idea to read the entire account. One place the account is found is Mark 14:27-72 . Shortly before His crucifixion Jesus spoke to His disciples. He told them they all were going to fall away. But Peter insisted that even if the others fell away he wouldn't. Peter even mentioned that he was ready to die with Jesus. Peter was sincere in his statements. And here within Mark 14:32-38 we see that Jesus acknowledged his genuine desire. Jesus also mentioned something that suggests the source of Peter's failure. 32 They came to a place named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, "Sit here until I have prayed." 33 And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. 34 And He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch." 35 And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. 36 And He was saying, "Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will." 37 And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? 38 "Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Jesus said, ".....the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" In saying this He gave Peter a compliment. He acknowledged that he really had a willingness to do the things he said. But, even with a willing heart, Peter still denied Jesus. If Peter was sincere than what caused him to fail? It appears that a lack of prayer led to failure. Jesus came and found Peter asleep. Peter had missed a time of prayer shortly before he would deny Jesus. His heart was willing to obey. But he needed the extra help that would only come from watching and praying. Peter ended up doing the thing which he strongly opposed. But afterwards he was truly sorry and wept. So we need to learn from this passage so we can have victory. We must be committed to our personal time of watching and praying. Without prayer we can have a spirit that is willing to obey but lacks power. But with prayer our willingness can result in strength that leads to victory. Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" (www.lockman.org)

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Today's devotion encompasses several things. It speaks about avoiding bad company and it's deadly consequences. To be more specific it speaks about the dangers of joining a gang in order to obtain easy money. For being lured into these things leads to spiritual death and can result in physical death too. Please turn to Proverbs 1:8-19 so you can follow along. In verse 8 we see one safeguard against being lured into this trap is listening to the Biblical teachings of godly parents. Note here the importance of the mother's teaching within the home. The child needs the teachings to be reinforced from both father and mother. Starting at verse 10 notice the use of words that are plural such as: "sinners", "us", "we", "them", and "they". This refers to a group of people. Since verse 11 states the group's desire to do harm to the innocent it is possible to label them as a gang. And how are they enticing him. In a couple of ways. In verses 13-14 they are enticing the youth with fast and easy money. In verse 13 notice the use of the phrases, "all kinds", "precious wealth" and "fill our houses". The gang is painting a picture of obtaining various kinds of wealth that is of high quality and that is plentiful. There is another enticing draw in verses 13-14. The youth is being offered the opportunity to be part of a brotherhood. They promise that everything that they obtain will be shared amongst themselves. We will all be one big family. But this promise of being a brotherhood is deceptive. They attack the innocent because they lack compassion. Since they lack compassion, how can the youth expect them to fulfill their promise of being a tightly knit family? The advice from the youth's godly parents is don't consent to go with them. Avoid their company altogether. Their deeds will boomerang back on them. It will take away their life. And you will suffer the same fate too if you align yourself with them. Here are a couple of additional safeguards against this type of temptation. Since the desire to be part of a brotherhood was part of the enticement, one counteragent would be developing a network of godly friends. Choose to meet that God given desire for fellowship with godly people. Another safeguard is to recognize that happiness can't be found in material things. I'll close with what Jesus said in Luke 12:15 15 Then He said to them, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.". Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" (www.lockman.org ) God bless

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There are times in our Christian walk when we need encouragement and strengthening but there is nobody to lift us up. At those times we must be able to grab a hold of the word of God by ourselves and encourage ourselves. We must strengthen ourselves in the Lord. David had a situation where he had to do just that. We find this account in 1 Samuel 30:1-6 . While David and his men were away from their families the Amalekites made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag. During this raid they took captive the families of David and his men. In addition to the grief of having his own wives taken captive, he also was distressed because the people were angry and talked about stoning him. David is very troubled and has no source of encouragement. He couldn

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Before we start this short devotion lets look at the two most important commandments that God gave us. In fact every command that God expects of us can be summed up in these two central commands. They are found in Matthew 22:35-40 35One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' 38"This is the great and foremost commandment. 39"The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' 40"On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." I like to evaluate myself from time to time and see how my walk is doing. I ask myself several questions. Am I growing in loving God? Am I growing in loving my family? Am I showing kindness to my co-workers? Am I showing love to my neighbors? As I think on these things, I have to be careful that I don't set aside growing in love for my neighbors. It is a big teaching. In fact half of what Jesus teaches in this verse is loving our neighbor. If I'm not growing in this area I'm missing the broad side of the barn. How often do you do good to your neighbor ? Do you know them by name? I am not saying these things to make anyone feel bad. If you are falling short then make a plan right now to show some kindness this week. Have your mind ready to act. Ask God for wisdom on how to be kind this week. Then act on it. Before you move on from this devotion to do something else please stop. Stop and don't think about anything else until you make a plan of how you will show kindness towards your neighbors this week. I hope this stirs someone up to show love. Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" (www.lockman.org) God bless

The purpose of this devotion is twofold. The first is to realize that God's children can please Him. And the second is developing a mindset where we consciously choose to make Him glad. Before we start I want to make sure the words "please God" are not misunderstood. When I say "please God" I am not suggesting that you can earn Heaven. Because the only way to Heaven is by accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. So for sake of confusion lets look at this devotion from the standpoint of someone who has already received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The Bible tells us many wonderful things. One wonderful thing is the knowledge that we can please Him. Lets first read Hebrews 13:16. 16 And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. This verse talks about doing good and sharing. And there is no mistaking the last three words in this verse "God is pleased." But at what point in time do our actions please Him. If we look carefully at this verse we'll find we can please Him right now. The word "is" talks about the present time not some point in the future. "God is pleased" as He watches us show love. It is so encouraging to know that we can make God smile today. ( note: in Matthew 25:14-30 there is mention of our master being pleased with us at a future date as a result of faithful service ) And we should make pleasing God one of the motives of our actions. We can set one of our motives to be a blessing to people. And we can set another to please God. Whenever possible, I like to set my motives before I actually show kindness. Lets use an example of giving some cookies to my neighbors. I first set my motives as to why I am giving them. I make a conscious decision that I will express love. I do self-talk and determine in my mind, "I will do this to make God smile and I will do this to bring good to my neighbors." Additionally, it is a good thing to set our motives to please God while doing routine tasks. Why? One reason is to build our love for Him. The more we act on love the more it becomes part of our character. Another reason is to maintain a joyful attitude. When we do a task as an expression of love to God we can rejoice in that task . And when we rejoice in our work it can keep routine tasks from becoming monotonous or burdensome. Finally, lets sum things up. Start with a conscious decision to make the motivations of your heart to bless others and to bless God. Then realize that your expression of love is bringing good to others and is pleasing God too. Then, rejoice over the good you are bringing to people and the gladness you are giving to God. As soon as you are done reading this devotion I encourage you to show love towards God. Bless Him, do something that is pleasing in His sight and make the Lord smile! Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" (www.lockman.org)