February 9, 2010 – Psalm 33:13-22

Psalm 33:13-22 (New King James Version)

¹³ The LORD looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men.
¹⁴ From the place of His dwelling He looks
On all the inhabitants of the earth;
¹⁵ He fashions their hearts individually;
He considers all their works.

¹⁶ No king is saved by the multitude of an army;
A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
¹⁷ A horse is a vain hope for safety;
Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.

¹⁸ Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope in His mercy,
¹⁹ To deliver their soul from death,
And to keep them alive in famine.

²⁰ Our soul waits for the LORD;
He is our help and our shield.
²¹ For our heart shall rejoice in Him,
Because we have trusted in His holy name.
²² Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us,
Just as we hope in You.

Wow. How could I have been so blind? How could I think that I can succeed when I trust in myself and in the things and people of the world? Yeah, yeah, the horse is SO strong, winning battles, but that strength can be taken away in an instant! God gave that horse its strength. It is so easy to trust in the things of the world, the things that are tangible, but then again, it is so easy for these things to fall. It may be hard to trust God, but He will NEVER fall. (How’s THAT for a positive thought?) I keep thinking that if I just do this or I just do that, I will be successful. I sometimes feel that if I just had someone who loved me, someone who would promise me things and protect me, then I will be safe and happy. Well, I hate to burst the bubbles of my fellow hopeless-romantics, but the guy ain’t gonna do SQUAT compared to what God would do, compared to God’s wonders and abilities! It is only through God that we can find fulfillment. It is only through God that we can excel in everything we do. I can’t trust in myself alone to ace an interview or get into a college. I have to have God, and when I have God, He will give me better than I even imagined! David nailed it right on the nose when he said, “He is our help and our shield.” (v. 20) God is going to love me. God is going to bestow unto me great gifts. God is going to reward me and keep me safe from all the powers of the enemy. God…well…God is the only Satisfier. Only He will suffice. God is love. ♥

God bless.

Pray for those who are spreading Christ’s word and love, and for those striving to find Him.

Marina

Please keep the following in your prayers:

The Copts who are grieving and suffering persecutions day and night

The Haitian families who are suffering and grieving

Mike Ibrahim

Mark Ibrahim

Bella Ibrahim

Abouna Paul and Sherry Girguis

Steve Clerizier and his family

Demiana Nathan

My family

February 8, 2010 – 2 Corinthians 4:1-7

2 Corinthians 4:1-7 (New King James Version)

The Light of Christ’s Gospel

¹ Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. ² But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. ³ But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, ⁴whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. ⁵ For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Cast Down but Unconquered

⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

It is not we who speak when we speak about God, but His Spirit speaking through us. He does not leave us alone. He does not say “This is what I want you to do. Good luck. See you later buddy.” No, He takes care of us and gives us the Holy Spirit to speak, and if we feel unsuccessful, we are not. Those who do not listen, those who seem hopeless, put a veil over the light that God shines through us. It is our job to shine. As long as we do that, God is proud.

God bless.

Pray for those who are spreading Christ’s word and love, and for those striving to find Him.

Marina

Please keep the following in your prayers:

The Copts who are grieving and suffering persecutions day and night

The Haitian families who are suffering and grieving

Mike Ibrahim

Mark Ibrahim

Bella Ibrahim

Abouna Paul and Sherry Girguis

Steve Clerizier and his family

Demiana Nathan

My family

February 7, 2010 – Acts 21:15-25 — GUEST SPEAKER: CHRIS GUIRGUIS

Acts 21:15-25 (New King James Version)

Paul Urged to Make Peace

¹⁵ And after those days we packed and went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ Also some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and brought with them a certain Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we were to lodge.
¹⁷ And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. ¹⁸ On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. ¹⁹ When he had greeted them, he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. ²⁰ And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, “You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law; ²¹ but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.²² What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will^[a]hear that you have come. ²³ Therefore do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow. ²⁴ Take them and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law. ²⁵ But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should observe no such thing, except ^[b] that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.”

During this time, Paul was undergoing a lot of rumors that his ways were misleading people, but Paul was determined in his mission. These rumors were getting in the way of his mission work, so Paul went to an extreme to make sure these rumors were cleared, but ONLY because it got in the way of his mission work. During his time, long hair was a sign of self-respect. Only people in mourning or people condemned had short hair. Paul and the other four men cut their hair as a sign of humility. Every day we are attacked with problems and rumors. We need to face them peacefully, by changing ourselves and not attacking back. We need to think of Paul and the way he dealt with his problems peacefully.

God bless.

Pray for those who are spreading Christ’s word and love, and for those striving to find Him.

Marina

Please keep the following in your prayers:

The Copts who are grieving and suffering persecutions day and night

The Haitian families who are suffering and grieving

Mike Ibrahim

Mark Ibrahim

Bella Ibrahim

Abouna Paul and Sherry Girguis

Steve Clerizier and his family

Demiana Nathan

My family

February 6, 2010 – 1 John 3:1-24

1 John 3:16-24 (New King James Version)

The Outworking of Love

16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 19 And by this we know[a] that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us[b]commandment.

The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error

24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

We could never have known love unless God first loved. We were created in His image, and because He loves, we love. How can we say that God is not love or that He causes all this pain and suffering? It is not He who causes us to suffer, but we ourselves. In William P. Young’s The Shack, God explains to Mack: “Mackenzie…there are millions of reasons to allow pain and hurt and suffering rather than to eradicate them, but most of those reasons can be understood only within each person’s story. I am not evil. You are the ones who embrace fear and pain and power and rights so readily in your relationships. But your choices are also not stronger than my purposes, and I will use every choice you make for the ultimate good and the most loving outcome.” and “You do understand…that unless I had an object to love – or, more accurately, a someone to love – if I did not have such a relationship within myself, then I would not be capable of love at all? You would have a God who could not love. Or maybe worse, you would have a God who, when He chose, could love only as a limitation of His nature. That kind of god could possibly act without love, and that would be a disaster. And that is surely notMe.” God showed us love and shows us love every single day. It is through His ability to love us that we can love at all, but it is important to remember that, although we love because of Him, doesn’t mean we love the same way. We love with limitations. We don’t love every person around us, like we should, but God? He loves each person specially. Like He says in The Shack “I am…especially fond of him.” He is especially fond of each one of us in our own unique way. Don’t doubt that God loves you and that He will do the best for your life when you trust Him, guaranteed.

February 5, 2010 – Galatians 1:6-12

Galatians 1:6-12 (New King James Version)

Only One Gospel

⁶ I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, ⁷ which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
¹⁰ For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

Call to Apostleship

¹¹ But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. ¹² For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we have to tell it as it is like Saint Paul did for we should not “seek to please men” (v. 10) We seek to please God. So, now, I will tell it as it is. There are people who are teaching things all around the world and calling these teachings godly. There are many “religions” all around the world and so many people fall by the teachings of others. It is so easy for some to fall because we are not firm in our beliefs now. Do we want to be like the Galatians that Paul is talking to? No. We need to figure out what is right and wrong. Those who preach the wrong words will be accursed. That is a warning for those who teach these things, but also for us. We need to make sure we are not manipulating God’s Word when we teach it. We must be true in what we believe and what we say and do.

God bless.

Pray for those who are spreading Christ’s word and love, and for those striving to find Him.

Marina

Please keep the following in your prayers:

The Copts who are grieving and suffering persecutions day and night

The Haitian families who are suffering and grieving

Mike Ibrahim

Mark Ibrahim

Bella Ibrahim

Abouna Paul and Sherry Girguis

Steve Clerizier and his family

Demiana Nathan

My family

February 4, 2010 – Psalm 5

Psalm 5

To the Chief Musician. With flutes.[a] A Psalm of David.

1 Give ear to my words, O LORD,
Consider my meditation.
2 Give heed to the voice of my cry,
My King and my God,
For to You I will pray.
3 My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up.

4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,
Nor shall evil dwell with You.
5 The boastful shall not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You shall destroy those who speak falsehood;
The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

7 But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy;
In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.
8 Lead me, O LORD, in Your righteousness because of my enemies;
Make Your way straight before my face.

9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth;
Their inward part is destruction;
Their throat is an open tomb;
They flatter with their tongue.
10 Pronounce them guilty, O God!
Let them fall by their own counsels;
Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions,
For they have rebelled against You.

11 But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;
Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;
Let those also who love Your name
Be joyful in You.
12 For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous;
With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

Why do we follow God’s commandments? Why do we “do this” and “not do that”? Well, for one thing, if we love God, we’ll do it. When we love someone, we do whatever it takes to make him or her happy. I cannot stress this enough. When we love God, we do what makes Him happy. BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! (I should be on an infomercial ) We benefit from following His commandments too! “For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous;With favor You will surround him as with a shield.” (v. 12) We will be blessed. He will give us so many blessings in life, whether we realize they are blessings or not. Not only that, but He will surround us with shields! We have protection, people! That means we are VIPs in God’s eyes. And what does that mean?! THAT HE LOVES US, SO WE SHOULD LOVE HIM BACK TOOOOOO!!! I’m telling you, there’s so much we don’t understand, especially how God can love us and how much He can love us. Don’t follow His commandments out of obligation; follow them because you love Him.

God bless.

Pray for those who are spreading Christ’s word and love, and for those striving to find Him.

Marina

Please keep the following in your prayers:

The Copts who are grieving and suffering persecutions day and night

The Haitian families who are suffering and grieving

Mike Ibrahim

Mark Ibrahim

Bella Ibrahim

Abouna Paul and Sherry Girguis

Steve Clerizier and his family

Demiana Nathan

My family

February 3, 2010 – Hebrews 5:12-6:1

Hebrews 5:12-6:1 (New King James Version)

Spiritual Immaturity

¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you needsomeone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. ¹⁴ But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Hebrews 6

The Peril of Not Progressing

¹ Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

I don’t know if this sounds familiar to any of you other servants, but it does to me. Although we teach and spread the word of God to those around us, whether to little elementary school kids or junior high school or high school and beyond, we ourselves must be taught. We are not high and mighty because we serve. On the contrary, we are called servants because we serve these people and we serve God. And because we are serving and teaching them, we must be spiritually prepared first. We must not neglect our spiritual growth because when we do, the kids will suffer with us.

God bless.

Pray for those who are spreading Christ’s word and love, and for those striving to find Him.

Marina

Please keep the following in your prayers:

The Copts who are grieving and suffering persecutions day and night

The Haitian families who are suffering and grieving

Mike Ibrahim

Mark Ibrahim

Bella Ibrahim

Abouna Paul and Sherry Girguis

Steve Clerizier and his family

Demiana Nathan

My family

February 2, 2010 – Acts 16:16-25

Acts 16:16-25 (New King James Version)

Paul and Silas Imprisoned

¹⁶ Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” ¹⁸ And this she did for many days.
But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour. ¹⁹ But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.
²⁰ And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; ²¹ and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” ²²Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. ²³ And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. ²⁴ Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

The Philippian Jailer Saved

²⁵ But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

I want to comment on verse 25: “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.” People are watching us and listening to us whether we realize it or not. We must be good examples to all who are around us because as Christians we have people watching our every move and listening to our every word. “You may be the only Bible some people read.” (Tiffany York) You don’t want to be the reason someone doesn’t believe. Just keep that in mind.

God bless.

Pray for those who are spreading Christ’s word and love, and for those striving to find Him.

Marina

Please keep the following in your prayers:

The Copts who are grieving and suffering persecutions day and night

The Haitian families who are suffering and grieving

Mike Ibrahim

Mark Ibrahim

Bella Ibrahim

Abouna Paul and Sherry Girguis

Steve Clerizier and his family

Demiana Nathan

My family

January 31, 2010 – 1 John 5:9-21

1 John 5:9-21 (New King James Version)

⁹ If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which^[a] He has testified of His Son. ¹⁰ He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. ¹¹ And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³ These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life,^[b] and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

Confidence and Compassion in Prayer

¹⁴ Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
¹⁶ If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. ¹⁷ All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

Knowing the True—Rejecting the False

¹⁸ We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself,^[c] and the wicked one does not touch him.
¹⁹ We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
²⁰ And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
²¹ Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

God bless.

Pray for those who are spreading Christ’s word and love, and for those striving to find Him.

Marina

Please keep the following in your prayers:

The Copts who are grieving and suffering persecutions day and night

The Haitian families who are suffering and grieving

Mike Ibrahim

Mark Ibrahim

Bella Ibrahim

Abouna Paul and Sherry Girguis

Steve Clerizier and his family

Demiana Nathan

My family

A Quick Thought

As I was walking into my room today, for some reason Gandhi popped into my head and the comment he made: “I would be a Christian if it wasn’t for the Christians.” What if I am the reason someone will not become Christian? What if it’s because of my hypocritical actions that someone is refusing salvation and this very minute? How can I stand before God on Judgement Day if I am the cause of Him losing another child? I think it’s important to always remember this quote.

God bless.

Marina