Video Bible Lesson - How to Live Fear Free in a Fearful World by Lynette Kittle

1/2 Hour of God’s Power with Scott Ralls

7/11/2020

How to Live Fear Free in a Fearful World

by Lynette Kittle

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care.” - Matthew 10:29If you’re feeling anxious, fearful, or distraught over current headlines, you’re not alone. An unstable and volatile world is causing people to feel vulnerable at home, in school, at work, in travel, and as they go about their daily activities.Still Scripture encourages you to not be afraid of those who kill the body (Matthew 10:28). God doesn’t want you to live a fearful life and urges you to “Have no fear of sudden disaster” (Proverbs 3:25).So how is it possible to live fear-free in a fearful world?Since God has not given you a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7), it’s up to you to choose to trust Him no matter what you’re facing, to walk around assured He is with you, and to believe His promise that, “Never will I leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).In life-threatening situations, you can be assured God is with you. Scripture describes what Stephen experienced when he came under attack, how “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to Heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55).God was with Stephen in the darkest of circumstances and when he died, he passed into new life. Like him, your life in Christ is eternal as explained: “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” (1 Corinthians 15:54).You belong to God and your life is safe and secure in Him. As Jesus said in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die.”The Apostle Paul understood God’s eternal provision for life when he stated, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).Even if threats of death increase in the world, you don’t have to live a fearful life because nothing, not even death, can separate you from His care. Romans 8:38, 39 states, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”Whatever situations life may bring, resist the urge to be afraid. As Stephen did, look to God, being assured He is with you knowing, “He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart” (Psalm 91:4).

#Jesus, #Christian, #Bible, #Salvation, #Heaven, #God, #HolySpirit

Streams in the Desert

Streams in the Desert

It came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land (1 Kings 17:7).

Week after week, with unfaltering and steadfast spirit, Elijah watched that dwindling brook; often tempted to stagger through unbelief, but refusing to allow his circumstances to come between himself and God. Unbelief sees God through circumstances, as we sometimes see the sun shorn of his rays through smoky air; but faith puts God between itself and circumstances, and looks at them through Him.

And so the dwindling brook became a silver thread; and the silver thread stood presently in pools at the foot of the largest boulders; and the pools shrank. The birds fled; the wild creatures of field and forest came no more to drink; the brook was dry. Only then to his patient and unwavering spirit, "the word of the Lord came, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath."

Most of us would have gotten anxious and worn with planning long before that. We should have ceased our songs as soon as the streamlet caroled less musically over its rocky bed; and with harps swinging on the willows, we should have paced to and fro upon the withering grass, lost in pensive thought. And probably, long ere the brook was dry, we should have devised some plan, and asking God's blessing on it, would have started off elsewhere.

God often does extricate us, because His mercy endureth forever; but if we had only waited first to see the unfolding of His plans, we should never have found ourselves landed in such an inextricable labyrinth; and we should never have been compelled to retrace our steps with so many tears of shame.

Wait, patiently wait!
--F. B. Meyer

Developing Faith through Adversity.....Dr. Charles Stanley

Developing Faith through Adversity

Dr. Charles Stanley

2 Corinthians 11:23-30

It doesn't seem fair, does it? Paul spent his life serving Christ, and yet he experienced continual suffering. Why would God let one of His most faithful servants go through so much pain? This isn't just a question about Paul; it's an issue we face today. In our minds, the Lord should protect His loyal followers from hardships, but He doesn't necessarily do so.

Maybe our reasoning is backwards. We think faithful Christians don't deserve to suffer, but from God's perspective, suffering is what produces faithful Christians. If we all had lives of ease without opposition, trials, or pain, we'd never really know God, because we'd never need Him. Like it or not, adversity teaches us more about the Lord than simply reading the Bible ever will.

I'm not saying we don't need to know Scripture; that's our foundation for faith. But if what we believe is never tested by adversity, it remains head knowledge. How will we ever know the Lord can be trusted in the midst of trouble if we've never been challenged by hardship? God gives us opportunities to apply scriptural truths to the difficulties facing us, and in the process, we find Him faithful. For example, how would Paul ever have known the strength of Christ if he had never been weakened by pain, persecution, and adversity?

Depending on your response, trials can be God's greatest means of building faith or an avenue to discouragement and self-pity. If you'll believe what Scripture says and apply its principles to your situation, your trust in God will grow, and your faith will be strengthened through adversity.

Dive In

Dive In
by Ryan Duncan

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. - Galatians 5:13

One summer when I was younger, my church organized a week-long camping trip to Glacier National Park for all the high school boys. It was after one particularly long day of hiking that a few of us decided we’d cool off by taking a swim in a nearby lake. So we grabbed our swim trunks and towels and ran full speed into the lake, desperate to escape the summer heat. Now, I’m going to pause here and ask two questions…

First Question: Where does the water in these lakes come from?

Answer: Well, ice from the glacier melts and runs down through the waterfalls until it empties out into the lake.

Second Question: Does the water ever get warm?

Answer: No

The moment our feet hit the water we were stopped cold. We all stood ankle deep trying to figure out what to do next. A handful of the boys tried to edge gradually into the water, but after almost twenty minutes they still hadn’t made it past their knees. As for me and a few other boys, we decided it was best not to wait. We dove headfirst into the water. For a time it was unbelievably cold, but eventually our bodies adjusted and we spent the entire afternoon diving and swimming far out in the lake.

Followers of Christ can encounter the same problem my friends and I had on the beach of that lake. God wants us to dive headfirst into the Christian life, to forget our worries and troubles and just focus on Him. Instead, many of us will stand on the fringes of our faith, trying to slowly and comfortably ease our way into God’s plan for our lives. We aren’t meant to stand in the shallows of God’s love, however, so even though jumping in can be difficult at first, it’s the best way. Only by surrendering to God as the center of our lives do we become truly free.

Intersecting Faith and Life: Have you been avoiding the call to do more with your faith? Consider where and how you can serve, and start at the very next opportunity.

Further Reading

Romans 12:11

5 Lessons from the Story of Noah that We Still Need Today

5 Lessons from the Story of Noah that We Still Need Today
By Bobbie Schaeperkoetter

If you aren’t convinced that God’s word still matters to you in your life today, let’s go straight back to one of the oldest accounts in the Bible, the story of Noah and the ark, and see if it’s truths stand the test of time. You are going to be shocked at how the living, breathing Word of God can speak into your life today.

1. We can grieve the heart of God with our sin.

God is a good Father and He loves His children. Just like any good Father, our disobedience and sin grieve the heart of our Heavenly Father. In Noah’s days, the people were so sinful that God’s heart was deeply grieved. God was grieved by sin then and He’s grieved by our sin now. He can’t just ignore it because He is a holy and righteous God.

“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.” Genesis 6:5-6

2. God always provides a way for us to begin again with Him.

God must judge sin but he is also merciful, loving, and full of grace. He will never leave us without a way to come back to Him. God wants a relationship with us and is always willing to go above and beyond to provide a way for that. Even throughout deep sin and a worldwide flood, God provided a way for Noah and his family salvation by shutting them in the ark.

He is willing to do the same for you today. It’s never too late for new beginnings because God will always provide a way.

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark…Then the Lord shut him in.”  Genesis 7:11-13,16b

3. We will not always understand God and His ways, but we can trust Him.

Noah must have wondered if God’s plan was best because, after all, a worldwide flood seems very harsh. However, God had an eternal plan in mind. He knew the sinful state of the world was self-destructive and loved the world enough to intervene.

His plan ultimately provided a way for you and me to come to salvation. God sees the bigger picture, so we must trust Him even when we don’t understand His ways.

In Isaiah 55:8-9 we are reminded that God says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

4. We can obey God even if the world thinks we are crazy.

Speaking of things that are hard to understand, Noah must have faced lots of opposition. People must have been unkind and laughed as he built a massive ark when it had never rained like God told Noah that it would. Yet, Noah obeyed and held fast to what he knew was right, and God rewarded his obedience.

Sometimes obeying God means believing and doing things that the world won’t understand, but we know that God honors our obedience to him.

“And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.” Genesis 7:5,7

5. All things are possible with God.

As Christians, we believe that the Bible is 100 percent true, and that means that we believe in a flood that covered the whole earth. We believe in a God that warned, instructed, and protected Noah and his family and loved creation enough to send animals into the ark to protect them.

God is able to do far above what we know, expect, and even understand. That was true of Him then and it’s still true of Him today. He did it in Noah’s situation and He can do it in yours.

As if there weren’t proof enough, Ephesians 3:20-21 reminds us of that truth. It says that He “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”

A Prayer to Pray against Sin You Can't Shake

A Prayer to Pray against Sin You Can't Shake
By Chara Donahue

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9

You have seen how it steals from your life. You have had others call you on it. You have half-heartedly tried to leave it behind but keep finding it lurking at every doorway. It is your favorite sin. Not that you love it, you may even despise it, but somehow you have yet to shake it. We sometimes settle for calling them vices, weaknesses, or flaws, but Christ has far more in mind for us than captivity. He desires freedom for His people, and giving life to the spiritually dead.

The first step in escaping the tangles of sin is always looking first to the only one who has defeated sin and death out of his deep love for us, Jesus Christ. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8  Sin continuously pulls down all of humanity with its corrosive ways, but those who have had its stain wiped from their hearts have the power to say “No”. The only way for that stain to be lifted is by seeking Christ as Savior, He clothes us in His righteousness and our filthy rags will be no more. When we begin seeking to walk in victory, we first must set our eyes on the one who is eternally victorious.

Let’s pray to our Father now for the strength we need to shake the sin in our lives:

Lord, I confess there is sin in my life I can’t shake. I’ve struggled silently for so along against it. I’ve dismissed it, justified it, tried to convince myself it isn’t as bad as I know it really is. Lord, I know Satan desires me to leave my sin in the dark. I confess it to you, and bring it to light.

Lord, I need your strength to defeat this sin. I am thankful that your power is made perfect in my weakness. I don’t boast in my sin, but boast in you who works in my weakness to make me more like you. I know that I have the opportunity to glorify you by fighting against this sin in my life. Give me wisdom and perspective in the moment I am tempted to sin – help me in that moment see my sin as you see it, and not do the sin my heart longs to do.

Oh Lord – who will save me from this body of death! Thanks be to God! Thank you Lord for rescuing me and saving me from my sinfulness. It is only in your grace that I am saved, and I am so thankful.

In Your Name I pray, Amen!