A25- The habit of breaking off our prayers before we have truly prayed is as common as it is unfortunate. A24- “Jesus entered our hell so we could have his heaven. . . . Jesus joins us in our failures so we can join him in his family.” A23 - God engineers everything; and wherever He places us, our one supreme goal should be to pour out our lives in wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work." Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might ..."Ecclesiastes 9:10 A22- The secret of the servant's life is that he stays in tune with God all the time. A21- Are there any among Us who have an honest desire to be Christ-like? We should all be aware that everyday is a day of testing. Some come to their own Kadesh Barnea and turn back. Tozer A20-  “The very first Easter taught us this: that life never ends and love never dies.” - Kate McGahan A19 - We must recognize the character of our self-life....We must consent to its destruction....and lay it at the feet of God in willing sacrifice. A18- nothing is impossible to the man who prays in faith, just as nothing is impossible with God. A17- Our ultimate purpose is to glorify God—the Creator of the universe, Great Innovator, and Inventor of everything. However you engage with social media, remember to use technology to point others to eternal hope in him. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through him and for him.”  Colossians 1:15-16  A16 - Christiandom as a whole is just as blinded by the devil as were those poor Jews 2,000 years ago. We are well aware that the majority of churches today are liberal, denying the signs of the times and the power of God; but we can thank God for the minority who are true to the cardinal truths of Christianity and the fundamentals of the faith. Oliver Greene (The Gospel According to Matthew Vol 4) A15 - you no more need a day off from spiritual concentration on matters in your life than your heart needs a day off from beating. A14- "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." C.S. Lewis A13- Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1. Christian churches are never told to carry on their proclamation of the Savior in a spirit of competition with other Jesus churches. The Holy Spirit tells us to keep our eyes on Jesus not on others who are also running the race. A12- when a person has the fullness of the Spirit of God, he will experience great conflicts with the Tempter. God allows temptation because it does for us what storms do for oak trees, rooting us deeper, and it does for us what he does for paint on porcelain, giving us long-lasting endurance. A11- I have enjoyed already enough of God's benefits to supply me with matter for constant praise for at least a thousand years to come. A9 - God wants us to worship Him. He doesn't need us, for He couldn't be a self-sufficient God and need anything or anybody, but He wants us. When Adam sinned it was not he who cried, "God, where art thou?" It was God who cried, "Adam, where art thou?" Tozer A8 - “Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.” Desiderius Erasmus A7 - We represent Christ well when we are not only kind to people we agree with but also to people we believe are wrong, going out of our way to serve and care for them. This is what it means to “love your enemies.”

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”  Matthew 5:44-45

A6-Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength. Spurgeon 

A5-Verse to consider when your bank statement sends you spiraling… “Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food… yet I will celebrate in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation! The LORD my Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights!” 
Habakkuk 3:17-19

A4 When in our hearts we prove to God that we are willing to accept crumbs, he always gives us a loaf. Greene

Matthew 15:21-28

New International Version

The Faith of a Canaanite Woman

²¹ Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. ²² A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

²³ Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

²⁴ He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

²⁵ The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

²⁶ He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

²⁷ “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

²⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment

A3- The three men who were thrown into the fiery furnace came out just as they went in- except for the ropes that had bound them. How often God removes our shackles in the furnace of affliction! Daniel 3:25

A2- The lasting characteristic of a spiritual man is the ability to understand correctly the meaning of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life, and the ability to explain the purposes of God to others.

A1- True prayer cannot be imitated nor can it be learned from someone else. (God Tells the Man Who Cares)

M31 - Jesus Christ is not my security against the storms of life, but He is my perfect security in the storms. He has never promised me an easy passage, only a safe landing.

M30- It is better to walk in the dark with God than walk alone in the light. (The Still Small Voice)

M29- Many years ago there was a monk who needed olive oil, so he planted an olive tree sapling. After he finished planting it, he prayed," Lord, my tree needs rain so it's tender roots may drink and grow. Send gentle showers ". And the Lord sent gentle showers. Then the monk prayed," Lord my tree needs sun. Please send it sun." And the sun shown, gilding the once dripping clouds." Now send frost, dear Lord, to strengthen the branches" cried the monk. And soon the little tree was covered in sparkling frost, but by evening it had died. Then the monk sought out a brother Monk in his cell and told him of his strange experience. After hearing the story, the other monk said," I also have planted a little tree. See how it is thriving! But I entrust my tree to its God. He who made it knows better than a man like me what it needs. I gave God no constraints or conditions, except to pray," Lord, send me what it needs whether that be a storm or sunshine, wind, rain, or frost. You made it, and you know best what it needs."

M28- The only remedy for human nature is to destroy it and receive instead the divine nature. God does not improve man. He crucifies the natural life with Christ and creates the new man in Christ Jesus. A.B. Simpson 

M27- What a joyful experience it is for us in this church age to be part of a congregation drawn together by the desire to know God's presence, to sense His awareness. (Tozer)

M26- Improve your mind for the honor of God. When you are chopping wood, and you have a dull ax you must work all the harder to cut the log. A sharp ax makes easy work. So sharpen your ax all you can. Andy Dolbow

M25 - goodness and purity should never be traits that draw attention to themselves, but should simply be magnets that draw people to Jesus Christ.

M24 -Verse to consider when your plans go sideways… “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:6-7

M23- If the spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He doesn't ask you to make it right; He only asks you to accept the light of Truth, and then He will make it right. A child of the light will confess sin instantly and stand completely open before God. But a child of darkness will say" oh I can explain that" . When the light shines and the Spirit brings conviction of sin, be a child of the light. Confess your wrongdoing, and God will deal with it. If, however, you try to vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness. 

M22 - It is the simple, dreary day, with its commonplace duties and people, that smothers the burning heart, unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus. (Chambers)

M-21- let us remember that no earthly circumstances can hinder the fulfillment of God's Word

M20- The cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus now puts an end to the sinner; and the power that raised Christ from the dead now raises him to a new life along with Christ.

M19

 - “It is the most counterintuitive aspect of

Christianity, that we are declared right with God not once we begin to get our act together but once we collapse into honest acknowledgment that we never will.”

Dane C. Ortlund

M18 -John 6:65-66

⁶⁵ He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”

Zphaniahh 3:17 The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing

This is but one verse among thousands which serve to form our rational picture of what God is like, and they tell us plainly that God feels something like our love, like our joy, and what He feels makes Him act very much as we would in a similar situation; He rejoices over His loved ones with joy and singing. Here is emotion on a as high a plane as it can ever be seen, emotion flowing out of the heart of God himself. 

M12 - I do not know why God does some things, but I am convinced that nothing is accidental in His universe. The fact that we do not know the reason behind some things is not basis enough for us to call them divine accidents.

M11- God has ordained our truest and richest comfort to be found by pressing on toward the goal. Sitting down and brooding over our sorrow deepens the darkness surrounding us, allowing it to creep into our heart. And soon our strength has changed to weakness. But if we will turn from the gloom and remain faithful to the calling of God, the light will shine again and we will grow stronger. J. R. Miller

M10 - David Brainerd once compared a man without the power of the Spirit trying to do spiritual work to a workman without fingers attempting to do manual labor: The figure is striking but the it does not overstate the facts. The Holy Spirit is not a luxury.... The Spirit is an imperative necessity. Only the Eternal Spirit can do eternal deeds. (Man: The Dwelling Place of God)

M9 - Obedience is the pathway to blessing. It’s the means of protection. It’s the means of joy. It’s the means to finding God’s best in our lives.” 
Nancy Leigh Demoss

M8- Oh, how sad it is for a poor Christian to stand at the very door of a promise during a dark night of affliction, being afraid to turn the knob and thereby come boldly into the shelter as a child entering his Father's house! (William Gurnell)

M7- There is no way to learn of Faith except through trials. They are God's School of Faith, and it is much better for us to learn to trust Him than to live a life of enjoyment. And once the lesson of Faith has been learned, it is an everlasting possession and in an eternal fortune gained. Yet without trust in God, even great riches will leave us in poverty. (Days of heaven upon Earth)

M6 - I have always been so sorry that the two disciples walking with Jesus on the road to Emanus did not say to him" we still hope" instead of" we had hoped" the situation is very sad, because in their minds it is over. May we never express our faith, as these disciples did, in the past tense. May we always say," I have hope". Zorn

M5- It is when heaven's heights are in full view that the Gates of hell are most persistent and full of deadly peril.

M4- " Joy comes from seeing the complete fulfillment of the specific purpose for which I was created and born again, not from successfully doing something of my own choosing."

M3 - It is one thing, to hear for oneself a sweet lute, sweetly played, and quite another thing merely to hear about i

M2 - The morning is a critically important time of day. You must never face the day until you have faced God, nor look into the face of others until you have looked into His. You cannot expect to be victorious, if you begin your day in your own strength alone. Begin the work of everyday after having been influenced by a few reflective, quiet moments between your heart and God. (Streams In The Desert)

M1 - The Church is found wherever the Holy Spirit has drawn together a few persons who trust Christ for their salvation, worship God in spirit and have no dealings with the world and the flesh. The church was never intended to be a natural and intellectual organization, but a supernatural instrumentality wholly dependent upon the power of God

F28 - being filled with the fullness of God is like a bottle in the ocean. You take the cork out of the bottle and sink it in the ocean, and you have the bottle completely full of ocean. The bottle is in the ocean, and the ocean is in the bottle. The ocean contains the bottle, but the bottle contains only a little bit of the ocean. So it is with a Christian. A. B. Simpson

F27 - “Trusting God does not mean believing he will do what you want, but rather believing he will do everything he knows is good.” Ken Sande

F26 - Little faith will bring your souls to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your souls. (Spurgeon) There is always a large balance credited to our account in the Bank of heaven. It is waiting for us to exercise our faith to draw upon it. Draw heavily on God's resources.

F25 - God wants worshipers before workers

F24 - to please God, a person must be just an instrument for God to use. For a few seconds, picture in your mind, the variety of wonderful and useful appliances we have in our homes. They have been engineered and built to perform tasks of all kinds. But without the inflow of electrical power, they are just lumps of metal and plastic, unable to function and serve. They cannot do their work until power is applied from a dynamic outside source. So it is in the work of God in the church.   A.W.T

F23- If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated and broken-hearted, since we will often be confronted with a great deal of ingratitude from other people. But if we are motivated by our love for God, no amount of ingratitude will be able to hinder us if from serving one another. Once we realize that Jesus has served us even to the depths of our meagerness, our selfishness, and our sin, nothing we encounter from others will be able to exhaust our determination to serve others for his sake. (O. Chambers)

F22 -Your approval before God is woven into the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, not what other men and women think about you.” 
Matt Chandler

F21 - Truth consists not in correct doctrine, but in correct doctrine plus the inward enlightenment of the Holy Spirit 

F20 - “Prayer is the place of refuge for every worry, a foundation for cheerfulness, a source of constant happiness, a protection against sadness.” 
St. John Chrysostom

F19 - Truth consists not in the correct doctrine, but in the correct doctrine plus the inward enlightenment of the Holy Spirit....

F18 - never let the sense of past failure defeat your next step.

F17 - There are two extremes. The Word without the Spirit is dry and dead, but the Spirit without the Word is incomplete. AB Simpson

F16 - Our Father takes away the rod when His purpose in using it is fully accomplished. Cowman

F15 - Friction caused by fretting is an indication of the absence of the anointing oil of the grace of God. When we worry, a little bit of sand gets into the bearings. It may be some slight disappointment, ungratefulness, or discourtesy we have experienced. Suddenly our life is no longer running smoothly. Friction leads to heat and heat can lead to  very dangerous conditions. Do not allow your bearings to become heated. Let the oil of the Lord keep you cool. 

F14 - let us sing even when we do not feel like it, for in this way we give wings to heavy feet and turn weariness into strength. Jowett

F13 - If I am United with Jesus Christ, I hear God all the time through the devotion of hearing. A flower, a tree, or a servant of God may convey God's message to me. What hinders me from hearing is my attention to other things. It is not that I don't want to hear God, but I am not devoted in the right areas of my life. I am devoted to things and even to service and my own convictions.

F12 - it is not the body of truth that enlightens; it is the Spirit of truth who enlightens.

F11 - If we would only move straight ahead in faith, the path would be opened for us. But we stand still, waiting for the obstacle to be removed, when we ought to go forward as if there were no obstacles at all. Winslow (Evening Thoughts)

F10  - I would rather be part of a small group with inner knowledge than part of a vast group with only intellectual knowledge. Tozer

 F9- A sanctified life is a life conformed to the Scriptures in every particular. It commences with our hearts; it next reaches to our ears, and then it is accomplished in our feet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbyVMkMmv58 (Brother Pepper )

https://youtube.com/watch?v=dl7Ip7siaQM&feature=share (brother Jason - The Sword of the Spirit) 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Du3Dy-R7dd0&feature=share     (brother Jason - obedience) 

https://youtu.be/VjwW2bewiE4. (Sister Hazel God Cares)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=joO1fRqaX_o&feature=share (Jason ordained)

https://youtu.be/rPQkxTPVBXs (Jason and Sandy)

https://youtu.be/1EsJMkg9sPg  (Brother Ernie -power of Words )

https://youtu.be/xC4iaQJrlps (Brother Jason 'Adopted by the King")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7noy0E-GQs (Brother Garry Testimony)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h12rZrm5ijI (Pastor Rocco)