“The Evening and the Morning were the First Day” (Genesis 1:5). 

How different is God’s method from man’s!
The creature works from day to night!
His best is first.
The Creator’s days begin with the preceding eve.

To Him-
Evening first!
Then morning!!

Are you disappointed in Christian life/work?
Remember that God wrought on through long dark ages-
– before His plans were evolved in order and beauty!

The foundation-stone of redemption was laid amid the gloom of Calvary!!
Are you passing through the bitterness?

For weeks there has been no ray of comfort, no sign of deliverance.
Yet every dark hour is hastening toward the dawn.

You shall see your Beloved walking toward you in the morning light.
Are you in despair?

The times are dark, and threaten to get darker.
But if the first creation began in the dark,

Can it be wondered at that the second must begin there to?
But as the one emerged in daylight, so shall the other.

The morning comes!
See the star of day standing sentry!

“For…weeping may remain for a night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning!” Psalm 30:5.

(PR)

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“Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord” (Exodus 14:13). 

These words contain God’s command to the believer-
– when he is reduced to great straits and brought into extraordinary difficulties.

He cannot retreat;
He cannot go forward;
He is shut upon the right hand and on the left.

What is he now to do?

God’s Word to him is “stand still.”
It will be well for him if, at such times, he listens only to his Lord’s Word-
– for other and evil advisers come with their suggestions.

Pessimism whispers, “Lie down and give up.”
But God would have us put on a cheerful courage.
And even in our worst times, rejoice in His love and faithfulness.

Phobia says, “Retreat; go back to Egypt; it is too difficult. Relinquish your principles.”
But, however much Satan may urge this course upon you-
– you cannot follow him, if you are a child of God.
What if for a while you are called to stand still; yet this is but to renew your strength for some greater advance in due time.

Precipitancy cries, “Do something; stir yourself; and waiting is sheer idleness.”
We must be doing something at once–we must do it, so we think–instead of looking to the Lord, who will not only do something, but will do everything.

Presumption boasts, “If the sea be before you, march into it, and expect a miracle.”

But faith hears God say:
“Stand still,” and immovable as a rock it stands.
“Stand still!”

Keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action, expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing voice!

God shall say to you, as distinctly as Moses said it to the people of Israel, “Go forward!’
In times of uncertainty, wait.

Always, if you have any doubt, wait.
Do not force yourself to any action.

If you have a restraint in your spirit-
– wait until all is clear,
– and do not go against it.

Wait for His Word!
You shall go forward!!

(PR)

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“Boast not yourself of tomorrow; for you know not what a day may bring forth.” (Proverbs 27:1)

I read some research by William Morriston,
– a psychologist, who reported that 94% of the 3,000 persons he surveyed were enduring today in order to get to tomorrow.

Do you know anyone like that?
Perhaps you are one of those.

Tomorrow, you’re going on vacation.
Tomorrow, you’re going to get the house cleaned.
Tomorrow, you’re going to start your diet.
Tomorrow, you’re going to balance your checkbook.
Tomorrow… tomorrow… tomorrow…

The only problem is tomorrow never arrives!
When it gets here, it is today.

And today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
It is always today.

What are you worrying about?
It’s time to ask His forgiveness and give Him your concern.

He is more than able to handle it.

Worry is pulling tomorrow’s clouds over today’s sunshine.
Worry about nothing!

Pray about every thing!!
Worried about what tomorrow will bring?

God-
– knows your future!
– holds your future!!
– and is your future!!!

Enter each new day with Him!
Goodness and mercy shall follow you!!

(PR)

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“Why, O Lord, do You stand far off? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalms 10:1).

One of the great mysteries of God is His ways!
Some of His ways almost appear to bring us into the most difficult places, as if He were indifferent to our circumstances.

It would appear that He is turning His head from our sorrows.
It is like Job’s experience!

But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came. (Job 30:26)
These events in our lives have a particular objective to perform for us.

That objective is to bring us to the end of ourselves that we might discover the treasure of darkness.
When we are taken into these dark periods, we begin to see light that we never knew existed.

Our sensitivities become heightened and our ability to see through spiritual eyes is illuminated.
Unless we are taken into these times, our souls never develop any depth of character.

Knowledge is gained through understanding!
Wisdom is gained through the experience of darkness.

After we go through these periods-
We discover that God was, in fact, with us throughout the entire time.

He has told us countless times that He will never leave us.
However, when we are in those dark periods –
– it does not feel like He is there because He does not rescue us from the circumstances.

He does this for our benefit in order that we might become more like Jesus!
Jesus learned obedience from the things He suffered! (Heb 5:8).

What does that say about how you and I will learn obedience?
Embrace the dark times which God has allowed.

And gain the wisdom that God intends for you from these times!

(PR)

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“And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You” (Psalm 39:7).

What are you waiting for?
And how can you be sure that what you’re waiting for is going to come?

Biblical hope means complete confidence in God and His Word!
It’s a confidence, born of faith in God founded in His Word!

Faith, hope and love go together (1 Cor 13:13). When we have faith in God, we claim His promises, and they give us hope for the future.

Hope for the Christian is not a feeling of “I hope it’s going to happen.” It’s an exciting expectancy because God controls the future. When Jesus Christ is your Savior and your Lord, the future is your friend. You don’t have to worry.

Why is this hope so important?
When we lose hope, we lose joy in the present because we have no confidence for the future. We live on hope; it springs eternal in the human breast. But it’s more than a feeling down inside; it’s a confidence that God is in control, and we have nothing to fear.

What is the basis for our hope?
It is the character of God. We’ve been born again unto a living hope (1 Pet 1:3).
It’s not a dead hope that rots and falls apart but a living hope whose roots go deeper and whose fruits grow more wonderful. You can have encouragement and excitement today if you will remember that you have a living hope.

Make a mental list of His provision on your behalf during the past year–answered prayers, met needs and other blessings. God’s faithfulness in keeping His promises in the past gives you confident hope for the future.

(PR)

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Is your past preventing you from being a fully devoted Christ follower and a Christian worker?

Are you a Christian without honor? Isn’t easier to be “Christ-Like” around people who do not know your past? Jesus was in his hometown teaching in the synagogue. The townspeople that he grew up with were listening and were amazed.

But look at the bitter words they lashed out “Isn’t the mere carpenter, the one who works with his hands, isn’t this the illegitimate son of Mary? Isn’t this the guy with the very ordinary brothers and sisters?”

Do people do this to you today? The evil one wants us to live in our past. He wants to remind us of all the excess baggage we are carrying around. God on the other hand wants us to repent and ask forgiveness for our past, and then

God forgets and looks forward. God wants us to place our excess baggage at the foot of the cross and leave it there.

Never to go back
and claim the sins of our past. Leave them at the cross. Jesus continued to travel throughout the land teaching and performing miracles.

He never looked back.

Do the same. Don’t keep looking back at your past forgiven sins, keep looking toward the Cross. The cross of forgiveness, the cross of redemption and salvation.

“A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.”
(Isa 42:3)

With Christ, there is endless hope!
But without Christ there will be hopeless end.

Follow Him!
For-
He knows your future; holds your future and is your future!

(PR)

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After the long, dark weekend, Mary Magdalene left early Sunday morning to go out to Jesus’ tomb.
Already filled with grief and sorrow she saw the tomb broken open and Jesus’ body missing. 
She ran to tell the disciples someone had stolen His body.  

Peter and John ran out to investigate, then went back into hiding to consider what they had seen.
Mary stayed behind at the tomb, overwhelmed with sorrow. 

Have you ever stood at a graveside totally lost and immersed in unspeakable grief?
Imagine Mary’s pain, totally shattered by the brutal murder of her Lord. 

But Jesus had already told His disciples how the story would end.  

This was a day of joy and victory.
It was not a day of grief and loss. 

Jesus came up to her and at the sound of her name on His lips-
– the light burst forth and scattered the darkness of Mary’s grief.

When we stand by a loved one’s grave, this is a moment to remember. 
On the Last Day our loved ones who are now separated from us, hidden in the darkness of the grave will stand before us shining. Their voices that are now still in death will be music in our ears once again when the Light comes to raise the dead and vanquish the darkness forever. 
We will see Jesus with our own eyes just as Mary did on that great day of resurrection.
And we will shine in that glorious light forever and ever. 

“Lord Jesus, thank You for bursting out of the tomb on this glorious day, revealing our future and that of our loved ones who have died in faith. Give us joy, courage and hope as we await that glorious day of Your return, and help us share it with all. We pray in Your holy Name. Amen.”  

(PR)

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Today is Good Friday-
– the day we remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ who died on an excruciatingly painful Roman cross two thousand years ago.

Because God is a God of infinite justice-
– he cannot forgive sin without justice being served.

Otherwise he wouldn’t be God.
This means that all sin must be judged according to the moral law of God and the universe.
We can no more defy this law and live than we can defy the law of gravity by jumping out of an airplane without a parachute.

The end result will be death unless—unless we apply another law, the law of aerodynamics.
This law makes it possible for an airplane to fly and a parachute to lower us to the earth gradually and thereby save us.
There is another universal law that we cannot defy and live.
It is “the law of sin and death,” which means that the judgment and penalty of all sin is death and eternal separation from God.

That is, unless we apply a higher law which is “the law of the Spirit of Life,” which is a God-given “spiritual parachute” to save us from eternal death.
God provided this law through the death of Jesus who died in our place to pay the penalty for our sin.
Furthermore, because God is also a God of absolute holiness, no sin or unforgiven sinners can survive in his presence.

As some bacteria are not able to survive in the light and die if they are exposed to it, so it is with us.
In our sinful state if we were exposed to God and his incredible light, we would be destroyed instantaneously.
And herein lies our dilemma.

However, God’s answer to our dilemma lies in the fact that God is not only a God of infinite justice and absolute holiness, but also a God of eternal love.
Because of his love, God gave his very own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die on the cross in our place to pay the penalty for our sins to meet the automatic demands of his (God’s) justice and holiness.

Christ’s death made possible God’s “law of the Spirit of Life”—our God-given “spiritual parachute”—to save us from eternal death.
Not to accept and use God’s “parachute” means certain death from which there is no other escape.
In other words, anyone who doesn’t accept God’s pardon will automatically die for him/herself—which means eternal separation from God, the author of all love and life, in the place or condition the Bible calls hell.

All we need to do is-
– confess our sinfulness,
– believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died in our place for our sins, and
– ask God for, and accept, his forgiveness and pardon.

If you have never done this, you can do so right now by praying the following prayer.
“Dear God, I confess that I am a sinner and am sorry for all the wrongs that I have done. I believe that your Son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross for my sins. Please forgive me. I invite you, Jesus, to come into my heart and life as Lord and Saviour. I commit and trust my life to you. Please give me the desire to be what you want me to be and to do what you want me to do. Thank you for dying for my sins, for your free pardon, for your gift of eternal life, and for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

(PR)

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Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. (Rom 12:12)

We’re to live in hope. We’re to rejoice.
So, when Satan comes to steal your victory and tell you that God is not going to help you this time, you just think on the Word of God and start rejoicing.

Rejoice!
That you’re in Him. Rejoice that heaven is your home. Rejoice that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Rejoice. Praise God now.
The devil can’t stand it!

“Be steadfast and patient in suffering and tribulation….” Tribulation means “being under pressure.” When pressure comes, don’t cave in. Don’t faint. Instead, go to the throne of grace. Go boldly in the Name of Jesus and get the help you need.

Remember!
When things get hard isn’t when you let go of the Word. That’s when you double up on it. That’s when you are “constant in prayer” so that you are unmovable.
Be patient under pressure. Be constant in prayer. The devil won’t be able to steal one thing from you!

Receive!
Why should you “be constant in prayer”?
Because you are going to receive a positive answer, your most expected/needed miracle from God your Father and He is going to be glorified in His Son by answering your prayer and offering that miracle!

Read!
Romans 5:1-5.
“Now (your) hope does not disappoint…”
And it will never disappoint you!

(PR)

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Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him. For the help of His countenance. (Psalm 42:5, 11)

God’s love moves us to believe that God will see us through the worst of times. Let’s see how the power of hope worked in the believer who wrote Psalm 42.

The psalmist seems to be a believer in exile, perhaps a prisoner of war in a strange land.
Is he being punished by God? Maybe, but we can’t be sure. Maybe it’s just one of the tragic
consequences of living in a world in which innocent people often suffer as a result of the decisions, right or wrong, of other people.

How is the psalmist doing? He is often lonely, anxious, and depressed. He longs to be back among his people and in his homeland, worshiping God “with shouts of joy and thanksgiving.”

But here he is, an outcast mocked by his enemies, who say to him all day long, “Where is your God?”

What does this believer do to lift his spirit from the pit of despair? Again and again the
psalmist says to his soul: “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

Dear friend, no matter what you are going through, keep on putting your hope in this great truth: Nothing in all creation – not even death – “will be able to separate (you) from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

Read Psalm 61:5-8:
My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be moved.
In God is my salvation and my glory;
The rock of my strength,
And my refuge, is in God.
Trust in Him at all times, you people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your love that moves me to the hope that you will never leave or forsake me. I’m waiting for your deliverance and delight. I’ll not be put to shame.
Work through me to share this hope with the hopeless.

(PR)

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