|
|
| Line 4: |
Line 4: |
| | <th><div class="panel panel-primary"> | | <th><div class="panel panel-primary"> |
| | <div class="panel-heading"> | | <div class="panel-heading"> |
| − | <h3 class="panel-title">[[File:Page.png]] April's featured article</h3> | + | <h3 class="panel-title">[[File:Page.png]] May's featured article</h3> |
| | </div> | | </div> |
| | | | |
| − | ==NEW LIFE FACT I== | + | ==Begin the Day with Prayer== |
| − | <strong>BELIEVE YOU ARE VALUABLE AS GOD’S CREATION</strong><br/>
| + | "I ought to pray before seeing any one. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others early, it is eleven or twelve o'clock before I begin secret prayer. This is a wretched system. It is unscriptural. Christ arose before day and went into a solitary place. David says: "Early will I seek thee"; "Thou shalt early hear my voice." Family prayer loses much of its power and sweetness, and I can do no good to those who come to seek from me. The conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, the lamp not trimmed. Then when in secret prayer the soul is often out of tune, I feel it is far better to begin with God--to see his face first, to get my soul near him before it is near another."--Robert Murray McCheyne |
| − | '''YOU ARE CREATED''' in God’s image to share His life, love, purpose and creative plan. You are therefore infinitely valuable to Him. He is saying to you, right now: “I love you. I created my best when I created you. I paid a price for you and you are worth all I ever paid for you. I have destined my best for you.<br>
| + | |
| − | <em>God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. In the likeness of God he created male and female.2</em><br/>
| + | |
| − | <p>God made nothing inferior. He is first class all the way. He created you unique. You are exceptional —one-of-a-kind Before you were born, you existed in God’s mind. He knew this world would need you at this time. He planned you with a special purpose that no one but you could fulfil because no one on earth could do what you are here to do. Your God-given value does not depend on special genes from superior parents. Your worth before God is not measured by your assets, the colour of your skin, super intelligence or formal education. All sorts of miracles start happening when you discover and accept your value and your potential.</p>
| + | |
| − | <p>The Bible says, <em>You are God’s workmanship.3 </em>The man who wrote most of the Psalms was wonder-struck by how God made human persons. <em>The Lord made people a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor4 </em>(K.J.V. <em>a little lower than the <strong>angels</strong>. </em>The original Hebrew word used is “Elohim” — God, as used in Ge.1:l.)<br>
| + | |
| − | <em>The Lord gave them dominion over the works of his hands; he put all things under their feet.5</em><br>
| + | |
| − | The bottom line of positive and stable self-esteem is when you can say: “I accept the value that God has put on me. When you do that, you will then cooperate with God to develop the best possible you in this world.</p>
| + | |
| − | <p><strong>Self-value </strong>will rid you of all jealousy because you will never again want to be anyone else.6<br>
| + | |
| − | <strong>Self-value</strong> will wipe out inferiority because you are in God’s class of being and He, in you, is greater than any person or any power outside of you.7<br>
| + | |
| − | <strong>Self-value</strong> will eliminate fear of failure or defeat because nothing can stop you and God working together.8<br>
| + | |
| − | <strong>Self-value</strong> will give you courage because you discover that with God at work in you, you become indomitable.9<br>
| + | |
| − | <strong>Self-value</strong> will cause you to stand up tall, to square your shoulders, to look out into the future with new confidence, to walk with a steady stride, and to rise to the level of importance for which God created you. ‘<br>
| + | |
| − | God created human persons as much like Himself as any child can be like its natural parents.<br>
| + | |
| − | God planned that whatever could be said about <strong>Him, </strong>could be said about you.’<br>
| + | |
| − | God never planned you or me for poverty, inferiority, sickness, depression, want or insecurity. 12<br>
| + | |
| − | God never created anything inferior — not you —not any human person.’3</p>
| + | |
| − | <p>As this powerful principle takes root, you begin to see and respect yourself as a member of divine royalty. 14<br>
| + | |
| − | God’s family is supposed to represent Him and to reflect His lifestyle on earth. Recognise your value. When you do, you cause the seeds of greatness to germinate in you.’5 Keep those seeds watered by thinking on them and reaffirming your value until your attitude and conduct are transformed.</p>
| + | |
| − | <p>Now say this to God, out loud.</p>
| + | |
| − | <p><strong>I RECOGNIZE my value, that You created me in Your own image and likeness. Whatever can be said about You can be said about me as Your offspring.</strong></p>
| + | |
| − | <p><strong>My life is Your very breath </strong>— <strong>Your life in human form. Your best material is in me. I am the product of love. Tam created for greatness, crowned with glory and honour, to have dominion over all of Your works.</strong></p>
| + | |
| − | <p><strong>THANK YOU, LORD. I have had a rebirth of self-worth. Knowing that I am created in Your image and likeness reminds me of my divine origin, of my high purpose, of my infinite value.</strong></p>
| + | |
| − | <p><strong>I shall never again depreciate the me that You value so much. I shall never again put down what You have lifted up. I am not a nobody. I am a real somebody.</strong></p>
| + | |
| − | <p><strong>AMEN!</strong></p>
| + | |
| − | ----
| + | |
| − | '''NEW LIFE FACT II'''<br>
| + | |
| − | '''KNOW THAT DISTRUSTING GOD’S WORD IS THE ORIGINAL AND BASIC PROBLEM'''<br/>
| + | |
| − | GOD’S DREAM for humanity is recorded in the Bible book of Genesis. His plan was to reproduce Himself in Adam and Eve and to have companionship with them.<br>
| + | |
| − | But their friendship had to be two-way. God would need to be sure that Adam and Eve wanted Him, like He wanted them. They were not required or forced to respect <em>Him </em>any more than <em>you </em>are.<br>
| + | |
| − | God placed them in the garden of Eden and gave them <em>every tree that is pleasant to the eye and good for food; and the tree of life also in the midst of the garden.’</em><br>
| + | |
| − | <p>The only condition: Since they were created in God’s image, to share His lifestyle, they were to trust what<br>
| + | |
| − | He said. God made one single restriction to measure their faith and confidence in His dream for them. He said:<br>
| + | |
| − | <em>Of every tree of the garden you may free/v eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.2</em></p>
| + | |
| − | They were expected to have confidence in what God said and that is all that He expects of you and me.<br>
| + | |
| − | Satan, God’s enemy, heard of God’s dream and conceived a scheme to induce Adam and Eve to betray<br>
| + | |
| − | God’s trust.<br>
| + | |
| − | Satan came into the garden.3 He contradicted God, asserting himself as an authority, and said: If you eat of that tree, <em>you will </em>not surely die.4<br>
| + | |
| − | <em>Eve took of the fruit and ate it, and gave some to her husband with her; and he ate it.</em><br>
| + | |
| − | That was the original sin — distrusting God’s word.<br>
| + | |
| − | Say this to God.<br>
| + | |
| − | <strong>PRAYER:</strong><br>
| + | |
| − | <strong>LORD, </strong>now I understand why faith is so important. That is all You ask of me — just to believe<br>
| + | |
| − | Your word.<br>
| + | |
| − | I now realise that lack of confidence in Your word was the original sin. Your friendship and companionship with me depend on our mutual trust. You want to know that I desire Your company and Your lifestyle, just like You have proven that You desire mine, And the only way I can prove my affection for You, is to trust what You say.<br>
| + | |
| − | I have not done that hi the past. I now realise why I have had to walk alone. I have played into the enemy’s hands by abusing the trust of life You placed in me.<br>
| + | |
| − | <strong>WITH THE KNOWLEDGE</strong> of this basic problem, I come to You, 0 Lord, convinced that Your word and Your way is the only basis for the abundant and blessed life You created me for.</p>
| + | |
| − | From today, my choice shall always be to totally trust in Your living word.<br>
| + | |
| − | AMEN!<br>
| + | |
| − | <em>Bible References </em><br>
| + | |
| − | Gen 2:9; Gen 3:1; Gen 3:6; Gen 2:16-17; Ge.3:4
| + | |
| | | | |
| − | Go to read more [[New Life Fact]]
| + | The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, he will be in the last place the remainder of the day. |
| | + | Behind this early rising and early praying is the ardent desire which presses us into this pursuit after God. Morning listlessness is the index to a listless heart. The heart which is behindhand in seeking God in the morning has lost its relish for God. David's heart was ardent after God. He hungered and thirsted after God, and so he sought God early, before daylight. The bed and sleep could not chain his soul in its eagerness after God. Christ longed for communion with God; and so, rising a great while before day, he would go out into the mountain to pray. The disciples, when fully awake and ashamed of their indulgence, would know where to find him. We might go through the list of men who have mightily impressed the world for God, and we would find them early after God. |
| | + | |
| | + | A desire for God which cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing and will do but little good for God after it has indulged itself fully. The desire for God that keeps so far behind the devil and the world at the beginning of the day will never catch up. |
| | + | |
| | + | It is not simply the getting up that puts men to the front and makes them captain generals in God's hosts, but it is the ardent desire which stirs and breaks all self-indulgent chains. But the getting up gives vent, increase, and strength to the desire. If they had lain in bed and indulged themselves, the desire would have been quenched. The desire aroused them and put them on the stretch for God, and this heeding and acting on the call gave their faith its grasp on God and gave to their hearts the sweetest and fullest revelation of God, and this strength of faith and fullness of revelation made them saints by eminence, and the halo of their sainthood has come down to us, and we have entered on the enjoyment of their conquests. But we take our fill in enjoyment, and not in productions. We build their tombs and write their epitaphs, but are careful not to follow their examples. |
| | + | |
| | + | We need a generation of preachers who seek God and seek him early, who give the freshness and dew of effort to God, and secure in return the freshness and fullness of his power that he may be as the dew to them, full of gladness and strength, through all the heat and labor of the day. Our laziness after God is our crying sin. The children of this world are far wiser than we. They are at it early and late. We do not seek God with ardor and diligence. No man gets God who does not follow hard after him, and no soul follows hard after God who is not after him in early morn. |
| | + | |
| | + | [[Category:Prayer]] |
| | [[Category:Lifestyle]] | | [[Category:Lifestyle]] |
| | ---- | | ---- |
