1 Peter 3:8-9

"Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing" (1 Peter 3:8-9, NIV).

Dr. Leslie Flynn writes about the time when the English and French were at war in colonial Canada. " Admiral Phipps, in charge of the British Fleet, was ordered to anchor outside Quebec, a city on the St. Lawrence River. He was to await the coming of the British infantry and then join the land forces in attack.

"Arriving early, Admiral Phipps, an ardent nonconformist, was annoyed by the statues of the saints that adorned the roof and towers of the Catholic cathedral. So he spent his time shooting at them with the ship's guns. How many he hit we don't know, but history recorded that when the infantry arrived and the signal was given to attack, the admiral found himself out of ammunition. He had used it for shooting out the saints."

I sometimes wonder, in the church, how much of our efforts are poured into fighting among ourselves over insignificant trivialities, and "shooting our wounded," instead of uniting our efforts to attack the real enemy.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me not to waste my time, energy, and resources on trivialities or majoring on minors, but always to major on the majors. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

"May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you; May He send you help from the sanctuary, And strengthen you out of Zion; May He remember all your offerings, And accept your burnt sacrifice." Psalm 20:1-3

I humbly pass this blessing on to you. You deserve it. Go ahead, it's yours! I sincerely pray that your prayers will be answered -- always. From experience I know that it is not easy having questions unanswered. It is better to receive a sharp "no" than to hear nothing. I pray that all your prayers be answered in such a way that you will know the answer without doubt. You are set aside for God. He has lifted you out of the quicksand and placed you squarely in the very center of His family. You are His child. He loves you. Because you have called upon His name, you ARE exalted on high -- and in the end, we will all reign with Him.

When you are in trouble, may He always send help. It may be an angel. It may be a friend. It may be supernatural. Or it may be a natural occurrence, but God will always send you help. God is good -- All the time. He answers prayer -- especially a prayer offered in unity by His children.

May the Lord find all your sacrifices acceptable. Those sacrifices may be financial, (temporal time), emotional (praise, thanksgiving, and worship), prayer, or any other type of offering. I pray that God will meet you at every turn and find you acceptable. I ask that He will give you an unquenchable thirst for Him. In this way, all that you do will be pleasing to Him. Hallelujah, Amen.

Hebrews 12:11, NIV

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:11, NIV).

Robert Munger writes about an American traveling in Syria who became acquainted with a shepherd. Each morning he noticed the shepherd taking food to a sheep that had a broken leg. As he looked at the animal, he asked the shepherd, "How did the sheep break its leg? Did it meet with an accident, fall into a hole, or did some animal break its leg?"

"No," said the shepherd, "I broke this sheep's leg myself."

"You broke it yourself?" queried the surprised traveler.

"Yes, you see, this is a wayward sheep; it would not stay with the flock, but would lead the sheep astray. Then it would not let me near it so I had to break the sheep's leg so that it would allow me, day by day to feed it. In doingthis it will get to know me as its shepherd, trust me as

its guide, and keep with the flock."*

Sometimes, just sometimes, when we insist of going our ownstubborn way and leading others astray, the Shepherd of the fold, may have to "break our leg" too for our own good and that of others.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please give me the good sense to not only know what is the right thing to do but the courage to do it, so that I won't need to experience painful discipline. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Robert Boyd Munger in Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations by Paul Lee Tan.

Acts 8:23

"For I see that you are poisoned by bitternessand bound by iniquity." Acts 8:23

At a church I once attended, they had a young lady who signs forthe hearing impaired members. She was very expressive and was a joy to watch even for the hearing congregation members. While watching I noticed the sign she used for sin. She crooked her finger like a hook and placed it near her mouth.

I checked to be sure and she said that the origin of the sign was,indeed, a hook. How appropriate! Sin is like a hook. And Satan sets his line to reel us in if we are not careful.

Like a fisherman, Satan places bait on the hook. That bait is what the Bible refers to as the pleasures of sin for a season. He "helps" us elevate our mood with drugs or alcohol, gives us a few moments of delight in sexual sin, provides a secret exhilaration when we deceive another, gives us a feeling of superiority when we gossip about another. These are all pleasurable feelings. They are the bait. But concealed within bait is a hook. Once we begin to sin, it becomes easier to sin. Eventually, the sin begins to control our lives. We become a slave to the alcohol ,the drug, the sex, the lies, the gossip. We are hooked.

Fortunately, we can be "taken off the hook" before the barbs dig in. The tool is repentance. We admit our sin to God and ask for help. He will help us come unhooked. But once freed from that sin, we need to become wiser. We must examine the "pleasures" of the world carefully. Be cautious of the treats offered to us, because often hidden beneath that nice juicy worm is a very sharp hook. Amen and Amen.

Matt 6:24

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" Matt 6:24

Picture this. I knew a man who had two jobs. Both employers want this fellow to work weekends. Not only do they want him to work weekends, they want him to work the same hours on the weekend. Obviously this guy has a problem. He is trying to satisfy two bosses and it is impossible.


His situation is a bit like the little boy who was sitting on the fence between two turfs with a mean massive dog on each side. Which way was he to go? If he jumped off to the right, the black dog would get him. If he jumped to the left, the brown dog was waiting. The only thing he could do was try to shimmy down the fence to a place where there was no dog and not fall off
before he got there.

We do that sometimes. We straddle the fence trying to take advantage of two different worlds. We may have an alcohol problem, but we think we can drink wine with a meal and not get into trouble. Ask any recovering alcoholic if that is possible and the answer is likely to be a resounding, "NO!" Is it possible for someone trying to kick the cigarette habit to wean himself off the weed one at a time? Possible, but not likely. Is it possible to lose weight and keep it
off by not eating? Not without a serious lifestyle change involving increased exercise (I know because I have lost weight over the past year, but they seem to find me every time and bring a lot of friends back with them!

Jesus was right; we cannot serve two masters. Oh, we mayget by with it for a time, but eventually one or the otherwill take control and we will invariably loose because the fleshly master will have the greater draw. We will love theone and hate the other.

One last word: if we desire to serve our Lord, Jesus Christ, we must continually break our ties with satan. Just like losing weight, stopping smoking, quitting drinking, we will have a struggle on our hands and it may be a prolonged struggle. But this is a battle we can win, if we are willing
to choose the right Master. If you are struggling today, choose Jesus. He is the only Master who can help you win the war and His victory parade is out of this world!
Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.