Declare Your Independence From Sin!

“Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness...Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness... But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our LORD.” Romans 6:15-23

Declare your independence from sin! Many countries in the world celebrate an independence day, when their country became independent from a country that used to rule over them.

As Christians, we can celebrate a different kind of independence — freedom from sin. Before we accepted Christ, we were ruled by our sins. The Bible says we were “dead in our sins” -- but now we are alive in Christ. “Just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Sin is no longer master over you if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. We have a new ruler who is Jesus Christ — the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Jesus Christ is greater than all the rulers of this earth, and He is greater than your sin and my sin. Sin is to choose to disobey the law of God and to do what is wrong. You no longer need to be the slave to sin; God give you victory in Jesus Christ.

So declare and proclaim that sin no longer is master over you. If you are tempted to sin, ask God to help you turn away from that temptation by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Greater is Christ who is in you than all the powers of this world. You and I have victory in Jesus Christ.

So, this week, let us pray that God will

• Help you resist temptation to sin
• Protect and care for our staff and volunteers at Global Media Outreach
• Cause people from every nation on earth to declare their independence from the reign of sin and to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ

THANK YOU so much for your prayers. God loves you so very, very much. He knows every hair on your head and He has loved you from the beginning of time.

May God bless you.

Am I So Important?

Have you noticed lately how the word "I" is paramount in many people's conversation? The main focus is what I want, what I feel, what I need and so on.

In his inauguration speech, U.S. President John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask, what can you do for your country..."

People seem to have forgotten how to put others before themselves. This happens at work, home, school and even church.

Could we learn to say, "I'll ask not what can you do for me, but will ask, What can I do for you?" Can we learn to put "I" second or third instead of first?

Jesus didn’t focus on Himself. His concerns were for the people around Him and what He could do for them. Can we do the same?

Jesus is Lord

“On His robe and on His thigh He (Jesus) has this name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” Revelation 19:16

Jesus is Lord. The Bible says Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

What does this mean? To be the Lord is to be master; King; to be the one with ultimate authority; to be the one in charge. When Jesus Christ came to this earth 2,000 years ago, He came as a humble carpenter. He lived His life in Israel and for a brief time in Egypt. He was not rich in earthly goods. He was crucified on a cross along with common criminals.

But when Jesus Christ comes back to this earth in the future, He will come riding on a white horse from the clouds of heaven. He is the one and only Son of God who has been seated at the right hand of God His Father. Every knee will bow to Him, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Everyone on earth will know that Jesus Christ is Lord. All glory and power and honor will be given to Him.

So the choice is ours today. Will we ask Jesus Christ to be our Savior today? Will we bow before Him as Lord? Will we ask Him to rule our lives? Will we submit our wills, our selfishness, our stubbornness to Him? Or will we, someday in the future, wish that we had asked Him to be our Savior and Lord when we still had time? So, this day, let us truly submit to Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.

Let us pray to God that

• Each of us will truly acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord in our lives
• The whole earth will come to know Christ as Savior and Lord
• God will protect our staff at Global Media Outreach and provide for us and give us wisdom to reach even more people for Christ

THANK YOU so much for your prayers.

May God bless you.

The Same Kind of People Live Here!

One day an old man was rocking on his porch when a moving van drove up. The driver asked, "What kind of people live in this town?"

"Well," the old man replied, "What kind of people live where you came from?" The driver responded, "They were the meanest, most unfriendly people you've ever heard of!" The old man sighed, "Drive on, because the same kind of people live here."

The next day another moving van drove by and the driver asked the same question, "What kind of people live in this town?" "Well," the old man asked, "What kind of people live where you came from?" The driver responded, "They were the kindest, friendliest people you've ever seen!" The old man smiled, "You'll love it here, because the same kind of people live here too!"

This old story illustrates that people tend to create their own environment. If they expect to be treated unkindly, they act unkind and bring it upon themselves. Philippians 2:3 counsels, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." This isn't talking about going around with an inferiority complex. Verses 4-7 show that with Jesus Christ in us, we can look out for the interests of others and serve them with outgoing love. We'll be making our town a kinder, friendlier place!

Wait on the Lord

We don’t have to face our difficulties alone.

It is inevitable that we will face difficulty and weariness in this life. Regardless of our circumstances, there is someone to call on who cares for us; someone more powerful than any difficulty before us. The Creator God encourages us by saying, “But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). There is nothing God cannot help us with.

God promises to help us work through our problems. That does not mean we won’t have challenges. We will. And God will be right there carefully leading, guiding and intervening in ways not always evident to us. But be assured He is there. He promises, “Wait on the LORD, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you” (Psalm 37:34).

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation

“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” Matthew 28:16 20

Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” Jesus said Go!

What does this mean? It means we are to move out of our comfort zone — we are to take action — we are to speak the truth in love. It means we are to tell other people about the wonderful news that Jesus Christ came to save them!

God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but would have everlasting life. The problem is that all of us have sinned; we need someone to tell us the good news that Christ died for our sins.

You and I have the awesome privilege of being God’s ambassadors to tell the world about Jesus Christ. You can start by praying for someone and you can ask God for His wisdom as to how to proceed. But when Jesus said “Go” He meant that we shouldn’t just wait for the world to come to us — we should go and tell people about Jesus Christ.

So, this week, let us pray that God will

• Help us to be bold and tell at least one person about Jesus Christ
• Help us at Global Media Outreach reach even more people for Jesus Christ by providing additional funding
• Protect and watch over our volunteers and staff at Global Media Outreach

THANK YOU so much for your prayers.

May God bless you.

Is Marriage Good for Your Health?

Marriage, scientific studies find, may in fact be good for your health.

That's right. The scientific community has, once again, succeeded in spending countless hours conducting detailed research only to discover truths that have been readily available for millennia in the Word of God.

A recent New York Times article, "Is Marriage Good for Your Health?" compiles the findings of several studies, old and new, concerning the effects that married couples have on each other. As far back as 1858, epidemiologist William Farr found evidence that caused him to remark, "Marriage is a healthy estate... The single individual is more likely to be wrecked on his voyage than the lives joined together in matrimony."

This sounds like what King Solomon wrote almost 3,000 years ago: "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).

The New York Times article also refers to recent studies whose results will sound strikingly familiar to students of the Bible. One researcher notes, "If you learn how to manage disagreement early...then you can avoid the decline in marital happiness that follows from the drip, drip of negative interactions." Her advice evokes the biblical comparison of family contentions to "a continual dripping" (Proverbs 19:13).

Another study shows that "married people are less likely to get pneumonia, have surgery, develop cancer or have heart attacks," while yet another finds that "a stressful marriage can be as bad for the heart as a regular smoking habit." Shocking? Not to the writer of Proverbs 12:4, who said, "A wife of noble character is her husband's crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones" (New International Version).

More interesting still are the studies that suggest that the health advantages afforded by marriage almost completely disappear with a divorce or remarriage. "In formerly married individuals, it was as if the marriage advantage had never existed," while "people in second marriages still had 12 percent more chronic health problems and 19 percent more mobility problems" than those still in their first marriage. Jesus Christ was serious when He gave the command, "Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate" (Mark 10:9). Such an action appears to incur natural penalties on those involved as well.

Even the findings about the effects of arguments on married couples mesh with Scripture. One study compared the heart-disease risk in couples to recordings of their arguments, only to find a curious correlation. The men and women with the highest risk of heart disease were not those who had the worst arguments, but those who failed to follow sound biblical commands.

Wives were most at risk if their husbands failed to show any signs of warmth in the midst of an argument, while husbands were most at risk if their wives gave even the appearance of trying to wrest control. In other words, the truly damaging arguments were the ones where the apostle Paul's commands—"husbands, love your wives" (Ephesians 5:25) and "wives, submit to your own husbands" (Ephesians 5:22)—were ignored. Apparently these verses are keys to having not only a successful marriage but also a healthy one.

The New York Times article observes, "With so much evidence establishing a link between marital stress and health, a new generation of research is set to explore the ways in which couples can mitigate the damaging effects of relationship stress."

And the researchers will take up that challenge. They'll spend hours and weeks and months quantifying, recording, observing. And some day they'll have all their results prepared in a nice little report detailing the best ways to avoid relationship stress.

You could wait, if you want, for that to happen. But you don't have to. The answers are already available in the same place they've been for thousands of years—the Bible. God's Word is filled with the practical wisdom we need to have fulfilling relationships with everyone from coworkers to our spouse.

Sure, humanity will eventually be able to figure a lot of things out by trial and error, but why go about things the hard way? If these studies have shown anything, it's that God knows what He's talking about. We can take advantage of the wisdom that leads to a successful marriage now and save ourselves a lot of heartache in the process. What are we waiting for?