Avoid Worldly Competition by Joyce Meyer - posted April 19, 2017 Let us not become vainglorious and self-conceited, competitive and challenging and provoking and irritating to one another, envying and being jealous of one another. —Galatians 5:26 According to the world's system, the best place to be is ahead of everyone else. Popular thinking would say that we should try to get to the top no matter who we have to hurt on the way up. But the Bible teaches us that there is no such thing as real peace until we are delivered from the need to compete with others. Even in what is supposed to be considered "fun games," we often see competition get so out of balance that people end up arguing and hating one another rather than simply relaxing and having a good time together. Naturally, human beings don't play games to lose; everyone is going to do his best. But when a person cannot enjoy a game unless he is winning, he definitely has a problem—possibly a deep-rooted one ...

Opening Our Eyes to the Needs Around Us BY RICK WARREN — “Do not look out only for yourselves. Look out for the good of others also” (1 Corinthians 10:24 NCV). Few passages in Scripture give us a more complete view of mercy than Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan. In this memorable parable, we can learn four specific lessons about how we can demonstrate mercy. In the next four devotionals we’ll look at each of those important lessons. First, we must see the needs of people around us. Mercy always begins in the eyes. You have to see the need before you can meet the need. You can’t care until you are aware. The Bible says, “When [the Samaritan] saw the man, he felt compassion for him” (Luke 10:33b NLT, second edition). Just like the Good Samaritan, you have wounded people all around you. You just don’t see them. They may not have been physically beaten or bruised, but they have been beaten up by life. They’ve been bruised ...

Depend on Him By Billy Graham   •   April 19   •   Topics: Holy Spirit Daily DevotionDepend on Him walking on beach at sunset I advise you to obey only the Holy Spirit's instructions. He will tell you where to go and what to do, and then you won't always be doing the wrong things your evil nature wants you to. —Galatians 5:16 (TLB) To walk in the Spirit is a challenging and inspiring exercise, for it combines activity with relaxation. To walk means to place one foot in front of the other. If you stop doing this, you are no longer walking-you are standing still. Walking always implies movement, progress, and direction. Sin shall no longer rule or dominate you when you are allowing the Holy Spirit to live Christ’s life through you. It is living by faith, living by trust, living in dependence upon God. If we look to our own resources, our own strength, or our own ability, as Peter did when he walked on the water, we will fail. You cannot l...

WHEN AFFLICTIONS ARE COMELY -PSALM 119:65-72 KEY VERSE: "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. The law of thy mouth is better..." (Psalm 119:71,72). Nothing happens accidentally in God’s economy. Every event or circumstance that occurs to God’s children are ultimately for their good. Even in the seeming negatives of life, God uses everything to His and to our advantage. You probably must have learnt about Job. God used his affliction to bless and to train him. In this wonderful Psalm 119, the writer discovered that there is something good in his afflictions. He had said "before I was afflicted I went astray". He saw God using his afflictions to make him better than he was. How do we react to adversity? People often wonder why bad things happen to good people. We learn from the Psalmist that good people may need to become better, and that’s why affliction sometimes come. Also, our affliction may be direct answers to praye...

RHAPSODY OF REALITIES WEDNESDAY, 19TH APRIL. WE WALK IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. RHAPSODY OF REALITIES WEDNESDAY, 19TH APRIL.  http://bit.ly/2dZqtLQ WE WALK IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). Christianity is a walk in righteousness. What is righteousness? It’s the nature of God in you, producing the rightness of God: the ability to do right and fulfil the will of the Father. God is always right; it’s His nature to be right. This nature of righteousness is at work in us. So, in our Kingdom, we do righteousness; we walk in righteousness and do works of righteousness; we manifest the goodness of God everywhere. The world may not appreciate it when you walk in righteousness. It was for the same reason that the Pharisees and Sadducees had a problem with the good works that Jesus did; they misunderstood Him. If in your place of work, for example, you di...

BACKSLIDER-IN-HEART I – Wednesday April 19th 2017 Memorise: The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself. Proverbs 14:14 Read: Judges 14:1-3 (King James Version) 14:1  And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. 14:2 And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife. 14:3 Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well. Bible in one year: Numbers 7, Jeremiah 16:1-13, Hymn: Sing hymn 16 MESSAGE: Backsliding is not an event but a gradual process that occurs over a period of time until is get to a noticeable stage. At that st...

Sweet Scent Sheridan Voysey 2 Corinthians 2:14–16 Thanks be to God, who . . . uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.  2 Corinthians 2:14 Author Rita Snowden tells a delightful story about visiting a small village in Dover, England. Sitting outside a café one afternoon enjoying a cup of tea, she became aware of a beautiful scent. Rita asked a waiter where it was coming from, and was told it was the people she could see passing by. Most of the villagers were employed at a nearby perfume factory. As they walked home, they carried the fragrance that permeated their clothes out into the street. What a beautiful image of the Christian life! As the apostle Paul says, we are the aroma of Christ, spreading His fragrance everywhere (2 Cor. 2:15). Paul uses the image of a king returning from battle, his soldiers and captives in tow, wafting the smell of celebratory incense in the air, declaring the king’s greatness (v. 14). We spread the aroma ...